PJN  GRAVED  £Y  '!'  //  WHLCB. 


THE     L I F E 


OF 


WILLIAM   PINOEY, 


BY   HIS   NEPHEW, 

THE   REV.  WILLIAM   PINKNEY,   D.D. 


"Tanta  vis  animi,  tantus  impetus,  tantus  dolor,  oculis,  vultu,  gestu,  digito  denique  isto 
tuo,  signincari  solet:  tantum  est  flumcn  gravissimorum  optimorumque  verborum,  tarn 
intigrae  sententiae,  tarn  vera?,  tarn  novas,  tarn  sine  pigmentis  fucoque  puerili,  ut  mini  non  solum 
tu  incendcre  judicem,  sed  ipse  ardere,  videaris. — CICERO  DE  ORATOEE. 

"  His  opinions  had  almost  acquired  the  authority  of  judicial  decisions." 

EOB.  GOODLOE  HABPEB. 


NEW-YORK: 
D.   APPLETON  AND   COMPANY, 

200  BROADWAY. 

MDCCCLIII. 


*? 

l^ 

P6 


ENTERED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  by 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 
District  of  New-York. 


TO 

THE    BAE    OF    MAKYLAND, 

EVER     RENOWNED     FOR     THE     ELOQUENCE     AND     LEARNING-     OP     ITS 
ADVOCATES, 

THIS    WOKK 

IS   RESPECTFULLY   DEDICATED 

BY 

THE    AUTHOR. 


'  V  P**  I  *  f\  r~*  *"  * 

356985 


PREFACE. 

MARYLAND  has  been  far  more  favored  by  Divine  Providence 
in  her  list  of  illustrious  sons,  and  exciting  historic  incidents, 
than  by  the  pen  of  skilful  and  "enlightened  historians  or 
faithful  and  competent  biographers.  This  is  just  matter 
of  surprise,  and  good  ground  of  impeachment.  Next  to 
the  production  of  great  men,  who  inscribe  their  names  upon 
the  monuments  of  their  country's  glory,  is  the  energetic 
endeavor  to  hand  down  to  after  ages  a  true  and  faithful 
record  of  their  deeds ;  and,  what  is  of  greater  importance 
still  (for  deeds  lose  something  of  their  power  to  fascinate 
and  charm  by  the  changing  scenes  of  the  present  moment), 
of  their  intellectual  qualities  and  moral  virtues,  which  are 
the  true  picture  of  the  man,  and  make  up  his  claim  to  an 
immortality  on  the  earth. 

It  is  no  less  the  duty  than  the  interest  of  the  State  to 
be  jealous  of  the  glory  of  the  past.  It  is  her  treasury  of 
wealth,  from  which  she  may  draw  largely  not  only  for  pre 
sent  exigencies  but  for  future  advancement.  The  most 
illustrious  of  the  historians  of  Kome  thus  wrote  : — "  Nam 
saspe  audivi,  O.  Maxumum,  P.  Scipionern,  praeterea  civitatis 
nostrse  prseclaros  viros  solitos  ita  dicere,  cum  majorurn 
imagines  intuerentur,  vehementissume  sibi  animum  ad  vir- 
tutem  accendi.  Scilicet,  non  ceram  illam,  neque  figuram, 


6  PREFACE/ 

tantam  vim  in  sese  habere ;  sed  memoria  rerum  gestarum 
earn  flammam  egregiis  viris  in  pectore  crescere  neque  prius 
sedari,  quam  virtus  eorum  famam  atque  gloriani  adeequa- 
verit." 

The  very  sight  of  the  statues  of  our  ancestors  is  inspirit 
ing,  for  though  in  themselves  but  cold  marble,  they  have  a 
voice  that  speaks  at  once  to  the  heart  and  hopes  of  the 
young  who  are  grouped  around  them.  But  if  mere  statues 
be  thus  eloquent  and  instructive,  what  must  be  said  of  the 
life-like  and  life-revealing  biography  ?  If  the  chisel  of  the 
sculptor,  or  the  pencil  of  the  artist,  can  accomplish  so  won 
derful  a  work  as  the  retaining  here  on  the  earth  the  image 
of  departed  worth,  what  may  not  the  pen  of  the  historian 
do? 

In  history  we  have  accomplished  much,  though  not  so 
much  as  the  rich  variety  of  our  material  demands ;  but  in 
biography  we  have  scarce  made  more  than  our  first  essay. 
Bozman,  of  old  and  fragrant  memory,  has  earned  just  praise 
for  the  facts  he  has  rescued  from  oblivion ;  which,  while 
they  diminish  naught  from  the  stirring  glories  of  Plymouth 
Eock,  show  conclusively  that  a  higher  Kock,  of  firmer  basis 
and  more  broad  protecting  shade,  was  laid  in  this  western 
world  by  our  forefathers  in  the  colonizing  of  Maryland — 
where  liberty  in  higher  form  pervaded  our  charter,  and  a 
more  enlightened  toleration  was  secured  to  the  pioneers  of 
freedom.  The  gifted  historian  of  Frederick  City  has  added 
another  flower  to  our  garden  of  history  that  will  never  fade. 
McMahon,  our  most  illustrious  living  orator,  who  wears  the 
robe  of  our  old  renown  in  great  names  so  gracefully,  has 
given  to  the  country  and  the  world  a  good  pledge  of  what 


PREFACE.  7 

her  sons  can  accomplish  in  this  most  difficult  field  of  literary 
pursuit.  It  is  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  his  vigorous  pen 
has  ceased  to  record  the  glowing  deeds  of  the  past,  and 
sketch  with  those  master-strokes  the  moral  beauty  and 
intellectual  grandeur  of  her  sons,  whose  names  and  deeds 
are  inseparably  blended  with  her  history.  It  is  to  our 
shame  and  disgrace,  that  the  historian  is  yet  alive,  patient 
in  study,  and  skilled  in  all  that  can  give  force  and  beauty 
to  narrative ;  and  yet  that  narrative  be  not  completed.  It 
is  a  burning  reproach  that  one  of  the  original  thirteen  stars 
(whose  very  first  scintillations  of  liberty  were  the  solace  and 
consolation  of  the  oppressed,  and  whose  peculiar  brilliancy 
was  always  meekly  blended  with  that  of  the  blazing  galaxy) 
is  not  yet  fixed  in  the  firmament  of  history.  We  sincerely 
hope  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant,  when  the  pen  of 
McMahon  shall  once  more  recall  to  mind  the  fact  that  Eome 
had  her  Livy ;  and  enable  us,  with  the  modesty  of  truth, 
to  say  that  Maryland  may  exultingly  point  to  hers. 

But  in  biography  what  have  we  done  ?  With  the  ex 
ception  of  Wirt's  Life,  by  Kennedy,  the  hand  of  strangers 
has  had  to  write  the  only  lives  of  our  lamented  dead  ;  and 
we  all  know  that  a  stranger  cannot  so  well  gather  up  the 
lights  and  shades  of  character  as  those  who,  familiarized 
with  the  hearth-stones  whence  are  reflected  the  daily  habits 
of  the  daily  life,  tread  the  very  soil  they  trod  and  illumi 
nated  with  their  glory. 

We  are  not  ignorant  of  the  difficulties  that  compass  the 
path  of  those  who  would  fain  write  biography  ;  nor  are  we 
insensible  to  the  rashness  of  the  undertaking.  We  have 
not  the  vanity  to  suppose  that  we  can  execute  it  with  such 
skill  as  to  disarm  criticism  and  win  her  approval. 


8  PKEFACE. 

Ours  is  a  work  of  peculiar  hazard.  We  follow  in  the 
steps  of  one  who  adorned  the  republic  of  letters,  and  illus 
trated  the  virtues  that  belong  to  the  enlightened  and  ac 
complished  American  citizen  while  he  lived  ;  and,  in  death, 
received  the  most  touching  tributes  of  the  admiration  of  a 
sorrowing  country — and  that  too  at  a  time  when  many  of 
the  most  interesting  incidents  are  lost,  and  some  of  the 
most  copious  and  important  written  documents  that  sur 
vived  him  were  mingled  in  the  wreck.  We  have  studiously 
collected  together  all  that  has  been  preserved ;  and  where 
we  have  drawn  from  oral  tradition,  we  have  been  careful  to 
test  the  accuracy  of  each  statement  by  direct  and  unim 
peachable  testimony. 

Mr.  Pinkney's  real  character  is  but  little  known  and 
appreciated  in  the  present  day.  That  character  we  have 
endeavored  to  draw  ;  and  the  facts  collated  more  than  sus 
tain  the  justice  and  accuracy  of  the  portrait.  It  is  not  pos 
sible  to  write  such  a  life  as  would  be  most  edifying  and 
pleasing.  There  is  not  enough  of  the  requisite  material. 
We  had  either  to  adopt  the  plan  selected,  or  give  up  the 
idea  altogether.  The  alternative  was  promptly  chosen,  for 
we  thought  that  the  faintest  sketch  would  be  better  than 
nothing. 

In  the  execution  of  our  work  we  have  had  occasion  now 
and  then  to  review  the  opinions  and  statements  of  others  ; 
and,  while  we  have  been  careful  to  deal  as  tenderly  as  pos 
sible  with  their  motives,  we  have  unflinchingly  exposed  what 
we  deemed  to  be  injustice  to  the  memory  of  the  subject  of 
our  memoir.  Passages  in  his  life,  which  were  obviously 
misunderstood  or  seemingly  misrepresented,  have  been  cleared 


PREFACE.  b) 

up,  and  his  title  to  the  admiration  and  confidence  of  the 
present  and  future  established,  based  upon  what  he  was,  and 
the  part  he  enacted  proved  him  to  be.  Less  than  this  would 
have  been  gross  injustice  to  his  memory — a  connivance  at  the 
wrong  perpetrated.  We  know  that  critics  have  labored 
hard  to  cry  down  this  habit  of  defending  the  character ;  and 
we  are  free  to  admit  that  there  may  be  vicious  extremes  to 
which  it  may  be  pushed  ;  but,  while  we  vindicate  the  pro 
priety  of  the  one,  we  have  been  careful  to  guard  against  the 
other.  Against  but  three  classes  of  assailants  have  we  raised 
our  voice  ;  and  we  have  met  those,  not  with  the  weapons  of 
argument  or  declamation,  so  much  as  with  stubborn  and 
incontrovertible  facts. 

Some  may  be  tempted  to  charge  us  with  extravagant 
eulogy.  We  only  ask  to  be  judged  by  our  facts.  If  they 
condemn  us,  we  are  prepared  to  plead  guilty  to  the  charge 
and  sue  for  pardon.  If  they  condemn  us  not,  we  may  well 
challenge  the  approval  of  mankind. 

It  has  been  said,  that  he  who  causes  a  spire  of  grass  to 
grow  where  none  grew  before,  is  a  public  benefactor.  If  so, 
what  shall  be  said  of  him  who  succeeds  in  setting  forth  an 
illustrious  character  in  its  true  light.  Criticism  may  sneer 
at  the  style,  and  denounce  the  over-estimate  of  ability,  which 
pursues  an  aim,  above  its  reach.  But  surely  the  endeavor 
to  accomplish  so  good  a  purpose  under  so  many  discourage 
ments,  and  amid  such  a  dearth  of  materials,  may  well  con 
found  the  critic,  and  shield  us  from  his  poisoned  shafts. 

If  those  "who  discommend  will  mend"  the  work,  they 
will  find  me  the  first  to  offer  them  the  sincerest  tribute  of 
gratitude  ;  and  may  rest  assured  that  none  will  rejoice  more 


10  PKEFACE. 

in  a  failure,  which  shall  secure  for  William  Pinkney  a 
biographer  worthy  of  his  fame,  than  myself. 

A  number  of  public  and  private  letters  never  before  incor 
porated  in  a  biography,  some  of  them  never  before  pub 
lished  elsewhere,  are  now  given  to  the  world. 

He  wrote  some  most  admirable  articles,  under  the  sig 
nature  of  "  Decius,"  in  favor  of  Madison's  re-election,  and 
against  the  pretensions  of  De  Witt  Clinton,  which  I  have 
endeavored  in  vain  to  secure  for  publication  in  this  work. 
They  were  known  to  be  his  by  his  more  intimate  friends. 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 


WILLIAM  PINKNEY  was  born  at  Annapolis  in  the  State  of 
Maryland  on  the  17th  of  March,  1764.  The  place  of  his 
birth  was  every  way  worthy  of  her  illustrious  son.  Situated 
on  the  banks  of  the  Severn,  girded  in  by  a  belt  of  waters,  al 
most  an  island,  in  full  view  of  the  noble  old  Chesapeake, 
the  paragon  of  bays  ;  and  surrounded  by  a  scenery  richly 
variegated,  of  mingled  beauty  and  sublimity, — it  is  not  pos 
sible  to  look  out  upon  this  ancient  city,  even  amid  the 
touching  monuments  of  her  decline,  without  admiration. 
She  was,  at  the  period  of  which  I  speak,  the  seat  of  refine 
ment,  elegance,  and  taste — the  Athens  of  the  New  World. 
Genius  and  wealth  lend  their  combined  attractions  to  grace 
the  legend  of  her  glory.  She  was  also  the  theatre  of  stir 
ring  revolutionary  scenes.  It  was  within  her  precincts 
that  the  offensive  and  unjust  legislation  of  the  mother  coun 
try  met  with  a  rebuke,  full  as  significant  and  emphatic  as 
that  which  has  since  given  to  Boston  an  immortality  of 
renown  and  made  her,  as  it  were,  the  consecrated  cradle  of 
liberty.  Young  Pinkney  loved  and  honored  this  the  place 
of  his  birth.  Possessed  of  a  soul  which  was  peculiarly 
attuned  to  those  nobler  feelings  of  our  nature  which  delight 
in  the  thrilling  reminiscences  and  ennobling  associations  of 
the  past ;  and  more  than  ordinarily  susceptible  to  the  power 
of  local  attachments,  he  always  prided  himself  upon  An 
napolis,  the  place  of  his  birth.  His  heart  clung  to  it  with 
peculiar  tenacity  even  amid  the  beauties  of  London.  Stand- 


12  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

ing  on  the  shores  of  classic  Italy,  and  drinking  in,  with 
every  sense,  the  potent  spell  that  lingers  by  the  spot  where 
the  past  so  gloriously  mingles  with  the  present,  he  was 
often  known  to  look  over  the  wide  waste  of  waters,  and  sigh 
that  his  eye  rested  not  upon  the  city  washed  by  Chesa- 
peake's  broad  waves.  To  wander  by  the  banks  of  her  rivers, 
and  survey  her  exquisite  natural  scenery,  was  ever  his  de 
light.  It  was  there  he  fed  his  strong  natural  taste  for  the 
beautiful  and  sublime,  and  kindled  the  flame  of  his  bound 
less  ambition.  If  those  banks  had  a  voice,  or  those  grottoes 
were  now  vocal,  they  would,  doubtless,  echo  back  the  stir 
ring  notes  of  his  youthful  eloquence.  How  he  loved  An 
napolis  and  treasured  through  all  after  years  the  touching 
memory  of  her  beauty,  may  be  ascertained  from  the  follow 
ing  passage  of  one  of  his  published  letters. 

"  In  itself  the  most  beautiful,  to  me  the  most  interesting 
spot  on  earth,  I  would  fain  believe  that  it  is  destined  to  en 
joy  the  honors  of  old  age,  without  its  decrepitude. 

"  There  is  not  a  spot  of  ground  in  its  neighborhood,  which 
my  memory  has  not  consecrated,  and  which  does  not  produce 
as  fancy  traces  it  a  thousand  retrospections  that  go  directly 
to  the  heart," 

Demosthenes  was  not  more  proud  of  Athens  nor  Cicero 
of  Rome.  Webster  was  not  more  proud  of  Boston  than  was 
William  Pinkney  of  Annapolis.  And  she  was  pre-eminent 
ly  worthy  of  his  ardent  attachment  and  exulting  pride  ;  for 
in  all  that  can  give  dignity  and  honor,  the  charm  of  patriot 
ism  and  the  fascination  of  genius  to  the  character  of  man, 
she  was  at  that  time  most  richly  endowed. 

Mr.  Pinkney's  ancestors  came  over  from  Normandy  to 
England  with  William  the  Conqueror.  His  father  sprung 
from  one  of  the  most  respectable  and  ancient  families  of 
Britain ;  the  same  that  gave  to  Carolina  some  of  her  most 
brilliant  and  illustrious  names.  It  has  been  sometimes  af 
firmed  that  his  origin  was  obscure  ;  but  nothing  could  be 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  13 

farther  removed  from  the  truth.  The  elder  Pinkney  emigra 
ted  to  the  United  States,  and  located  himself  at  Annapolis, 
where  he  lived  in  quiet  seclusion  and  illustrated  the  virtues 
that  adorned  his  character.  He  was  a  hero  in  spirit,  a  man 
of  indomitable  moral  courage  and  the  highest  moral  integri 
ty,  who  never  sacrificed  conscience  to  expediency,  and  never 
yielded  up  its  dictates  but  to  clear  convictions  of  duty.  He 
adhered  with  a  mistaken  but  honest  firmness  to  the  cause 
of  the  mother  country,  and  suffered  severely  the  conse 
quences  of  his  conscientiousness.  Even  those  who  may  be 
disposed  to  censure  his  adherence  to  the  oath  he  had  taken 
as  a  subject  of  the  British  crown,  must  admire  the  sterling 
and  heroic  spirit  he  displayed,  in  sacrificing  his  ease  and  com 
fort  and  fortune  to  what  he  believed  to  be  his  duty,  and  con 
fronting,  unawed  and  unappalled,  the  violent  outbreaks  of 
the  popular  feeling,  that  branded  his  conduct  as  unpatriotic 
and  disgraceful.  He  died  as  he  lived,  without  a  stain  Won 
his  honor,  the  victim  of  a  mistaken  sense  of  duty.  The 
mother  of  young  Pinkney  was  a  lady  of  most  vigorous  un 
derstanding  and  tender  sensibilities.  Her  image  was  the 
guiding  star  of  his  destiny.  He  always  spoke  of  her  as  the  in 
strument,  under  Providence,  of  all  that  gave  him  any  title  to 
public  confidence  and  esteem.  She  watched  over  his  infant 
years  with  the  fondest  solicitude,  and  aided  by  her  pious 
counsel  and  beautiful  example  in  the  development  of  his 
mind  and  heart.  It  was  his  misfortune  to  lose  her  fostering 
care  when  but  a  boy  ;  and  he  retained,  through  all  after-life, 
the  freshest  recollection  of  her  many  virtues  and  superior  in 
tellect,  and  never  mentioned  her  name  but  with  deepest  vener 
ation  and  truest  and  most  heartfelt  affection.  Poverty  was  the 
portion  of  his  early  childhood.  His  father's  property  con 
fiscated  by  the  government,  whose  infant  struggles  at  once  en 
listed  his  warmest  sympathies,  he  was  thrown  penniless  on  the 
world.  Without  money  or  the  patronage  money  brings  with 
it,  through  exertions  all  his  own,  the  giant  resolve  to  be 


14  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PIKKNEY. 

something  and  do  something  to  reflect  some  new  lustre  on 
the  city  and  State  of  his  birth — he  pushed  on  in  his  enter 
prising  career  with  a  steadiness  and  industry,  that  were  the 
surest  pledge  of  success. 

Concerning  the  early  education  of  Mr.  Pinkney,  there  has 
been  much  misapprehension.  During  the  lifetime  of  his  father, 
and  before  his  troubles  began,  no  expense  was  spared  in  secur 
ing  for  him  the  best  and  most  skilful  instruction.  He  was 
sent  to  King  William  school,  a  first  class  academy,  founded 
in  1696.  "It  stood  on  the  south  side  of  the  State  House, 
and  is  said  to  have  been  a  plain  building,  containing  school 
rooms  and  apartments  for  the  teacher  and  his  family."  At 
the  time  he  entered  its  walls,  it  was  under  the  government 
of  a  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Bref-hard,  who  was  a  first- 
rate  scholar  and  pre-eminently  fitted  to  have  charge  of  youth. 
Perceiving  the  extraordinary  abilities  of  his  young  pupil,  Mr. 
Bref-hard  took  uncommon  pains  in  imparting  to  him  the  ru 
diments  of  a  first-rate  education.  He  left  school  about  the 
age  of  thirteen — but  his  teacher,  conscious  of  the  uncommon 
promise  of  his  interesting  charge,  continued  to  give  him  pri 
vate  lessons  at  his  own  house  ;  and  watched  with  unbounded 
interest  the  development  of  his  mind,  as  long  as  he  remained 
in  the  country.  This  gentleman  formed  for  his  pupil  a  warm 
personal  friendship,  which  was  never  afterwards  withdrawn. 
That  he  received  a  first-rate  English  education  and  was  well 
grounded  in  the  classics  is  indisputable  ;  but  it  is  more  than 
probable,  that  his  reading  in  the  classics  at  that  early  period 
was  not  extensive,  as  he  did  not  long  continue  to  enjoy  those 
invaluable  privileges. 

This  school  has  been  sometimes  confounded  with  St. 
John's  College,  and  therefore  that  institution  has  been  not 
unfrequently  regarded  as  his  alma  mater.  The  misappre 
hension  no  doubt  originated  in  the  fact,  that  the  funds 
of  King  William  school  were  by  an  act  of  assembly  con 
signed  in  1785  to  St.  John's  College.  The  college  was  found- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  15 

ed  in  1784  and  opened  and  dedicated  in  1789 ';  so  that  the 
school  may  be  said  truly  to  have  been  merged  in  the  college. 

For  St.  John's  Mr.  Pinkney  felt  a  strong  attachment. 
It  was  with  not  less  pride  than  pleasure  that  he  saw  her 
become  the  boast  and  pride  of  Maryland  ;  and  witnessed  her 
distinguished  success  in  rewarding  the  State's  liberal  patron 
age  by  returning  to  her  bosom,  sons  who  were  qualified,  by 
profound  and  elegant  scholarship  and  high  toned  manly  prin 
ciples,  to  guide  and  control  her  future  destinies.  This  ven 
erable  edifice  still  stands,  and  fulfils  her  important  mission, 
The  strong  hand  of  power  struck  her  down  in  her  bright  ca 
reer,  but  Mr.  Pinkney  left  his  indignant  and  decisive  protest 
against  the  mad  policy  of  her  foes,  by  pronouncing  the  day, 
that  witnessed  her  degradation,  the  darkest  Maryland  had 
known.  Old  St.  John's  once  more  enjoys  the  fostering  care 
of  the  State,  and  prosecutes  with  quiet  and  unobtrusive  dig 
nity  her  allotted  work. 

Academic  instruction  was  all,  then,  that  the  subject  of  this 
memoir  enjoyed.  And  even  in  academic  groves  he  was  per 
mitted  to  rove  but  for  a  few  fleeting  years.  While  a  resi 
dent  in  London  it  is  well  known  that  he  employed  his  leisure 
moments  in  the  study  of  the  Latin  language  and  the  critical 
study  of  his  own.  Finding  himself  far  behind  the  classical 
attainments  of  the  prominent  men  of  England,  he  devoted 
time  and  attention,  under  the  superintendence  of  a  private 
tutor,  to  the  renewal  of  those  studies  ;  and  never  rested  sat 
isfied  until  he  had  made  up  all  deficiencies.  He  became  an 
admirable  Latin  scholar,  and  acquired  a  knowledge  of  his 
own  tongue,  singularly  accurate  and  discriminating,  rarely 
if  ever  equalled,  never  excelled.  Unwilling  to  appear  in  the 
learned  and  polite  circles  of  English  scholars  ignorant ;  and 
unwilling  to  affect  a  knowledge  he  did  not  possess,  he  at  that 
late  period  put  himself  to  school,  and  thought  it  no  degrada 
tion  to  assume  the  attitude  of  a  learner,  although  the  rep 
resentative  of  one  of  the  proudest  nations  of  the  world,  and 


16  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

placed  in  almost  constant  contact  with  the  most  experienced 
statesmen  and  profound  jurists  of  another. 

There  are  many  floating  traditions,  which  conspired  to 
give  to  his  early  years  the  pledge  of  his  future  vast  renown. 
But  still  for  the  most  part,  his  youth  was  passed  in  the 
struggles  of  pride  and  a  lofty  aspiration  with  the  rough  and 
appalling  realities  of  life,  when  poverty  settles  down,  like 
night  upon  the  sea,  on  the  youthful  aspirant. 

His  first  thoughts  were  directed  to  medicine.  He  enter 
ed  the  office  of  Dr.  Dorsey  and  pursued  his  studies  for  a 
short  time. 

Discovering  that  it  was  an  uncongenial  pursuit,  he  very 
soon  abandoned  it  for  that,  which  owned  him  pre-eminent. 
Judge  Chase,  of  distinguished  memory,  was  his  patron  and 
his  friend.  He  studied  in  his  office,  and  received  many  fa 
cilities  in  the  accomplishment  of  his  desires  in  this  new  and 
untried  field,  from  that  able  jurist ;  which  he  lived  to  repay 
in  after  years  to  Chase's  descendants.  In  the  bright  cata 
logue  of  the  illustrious  men  (whose  names  are  still  the  boast 
and  ornament  of  the  Maryland  bar)  Pinkney  felt  the  exciting 
stimulus  for  exertion.  The  field  of  fame  was  preoccupied. 
Laurels  were  strewed  all  around  him  in  wild  profusion,  worn 
by  other  brows  and  kept  in  unfading  lustre  by  their  energetic 
efforts.  In  the  splendors  of  Dulany,  her  setting  luminary 
(one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  his  age),  and  in  the 
meridian  blaze  of  her  Chase  and  Martin,  who  were  just  then 
culminating  to  their  zenith,  he  felt  as  the  sons  of  genius 
ever  feel,  whose  stoppings  are  in  an  illuminated  pathway, 
that  those,  who  would  follow  in  their  steps,  must  give  their 
days  and  nights  to  study  and  emulate  their  greatness  by  em 
ulating  their  love  of  labor.  He  studied  for  the  mastery. 
His  aim  was  high  from  the  start,  and  he  never  withdrew  his 
eye  from  the  goal.  In  the  struggles  of  the  debating  club, 
with  his  young  associates  around  him  (each  one  doing  his 
utmost  to  eclipse  his  fellows  and  win  the  palm  of  ascenden- 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  17 

ey  against  all  competitors),  Pinkney  easily  acquired  an  envia 
ble  pre-eminence  ;  and  yet  he  did  not  dare  even  then  to  enjoy 
it  in  ease.  He  was  indefatigable  as  a  student.  He  studied 
the  grand  principles  of  the  law  in  the  writings  of  its  pro- 
foundest  and  deepest  expounders ;  and  in  those  earliest  strug 
gles,  where  he  acquired  his  training  for  the  more  earnest  con 
flicts  of  the  forum,  he  poured  forth  all  his  powers,  and  often 
extorted  praise  from  the  admiring  crowd,  who  were  the  de 
lighted  spectators  of  those  youthful  contests. 

He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1786.  Harford  county 
was  chosen  as  the  arena  of  his  first  professional  efforts.  She 
received  and  rewarded  the  young  adventurer.  She  saw  his 
worth  and  appreciated  it.  In  April,  1788  (but  two  years 
after  his  settlement  in  the  county),  he  was  elected  a  delegate 
to  the  convention  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  which  ratified 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  This  was  the  begin 
ning  of  his  illustrious  public  career.  Unhappily  there  is  no 
record  preserved  of  the  debates  of  that  body,  and  consequent 
ly  we  are  not  able  to  determine  what  part  young  Pinkney 
took  in  its  deliberations,  or  in  what  way  he  signalized  him 
self.  But  the  bare  privilege  of  sitting  in  such  a  body,  and 
mingling  in  the  councils  of  the  fathers  of  the  Eepublic,  and 
recording  an  affirmative  vote  in  the  adoption  of  such  an  in 
strument  as  the  constitution  of  the  United  States — the  being 
considered  by  so  intelligent  a  constituency  (among  whom  he 
had  been  but  two  years  a  resident)  worthy  of  so  high  and 
responsible  a  post,  was  honor  enough  and  distinction  enough 
for  so  young  a  man.  There  seems  to  be,  to  my  mind  at  least, 
a  beautiful  and  appropriate  coincidence  in  the  beginning  and 
the  close  of  Pinkney' s  career.  It  opened  amid  the  splendors 
of  the  new  formed  constitution  (that  wise  substitute  for  the 
impotent  and  inadequate  confederation)  ;  and  it  closed  in  the 
very  act  of  giving  a  last  and  finishing  exhibition  of  the 
truest,  safest,  profoundest  principles  of  its  interpretation. 

In  October,  1788,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  House 
2 


18  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY, 

of  Delegates.  In  those  days  Maryland  had  cause  to  be  proud 
of  that  body.  They  were  men  chosen  for  their  intelligence^ 
purity,  patriotism,  learning  and  eloquence.  He  there  met 
with  competition  to  test  the  strength  of  the  strongest,  and 
fire  the  enthusiasm  of  the  most  aspiring.  His  style  of  speak 
ing  is  represented  by  those  who  were  competent  to  judge, 
to  have  been  singularly  rich  and  attractive.  With  a  voice 
of  uncommon  melody  and  power,  an  elocution  beautifully 
accurate,  and  action  graceful  and  impressive,  he  held  the 
listening  crowds  upon  his  tongue  in  rapt  astonishment  and 
wonder.  The  tradition  is  still  alive  in  Maryland,  which 
echoes  the  wide-spread  rumor  of  his  fame  ;  and  those  are  still 
living,  known  to  this  writer,  who  heard  from  competent  lips 
the  confident  prediction  of  his  future  pre-eminence. 

It  was  there  he  raised  his  voice,  in  bold  and  manly  tone, 
against  the  law  that  would  deny  to  the  holder  of  slaves 
the  right  of  manumission.  Twice  on  the  floor  of  the  House, 
in  speeches  of  considerable  power  and  fervid  eloquence,  he 
deprecated  the  insertion  of  such  an  odious  and  despicable 
principle  in  the  State's  legislation.  The  sentiments  deliver 
ed  on  that  occasion  were  such  as  did  infinite  credit  to  his 
heart.  They  indicated  a  spirit  that  shunned  not  the  respon 
sibility  of  speaking  out  its  honest  opinions  and  convictions 
of  public  policy,  without  reserve  or  equivocation.  But  those 
opinions  and  convictions  were  not  in  disloyalty  to  the  Union 
or  in  contravention  of  the  constitution.  In  advocating  the 
right  of  the  power  to  manumit,  and  holding  up  to  universal 
scorn  and  rebrobation  the  law  that  would  have  laid  low  that 
right,  Mr.  Pinkney  was  speaking  to  Marylanders  on  a  sub 
ject  exclusively  their  own.  He  was  addressing  himself  to  the 
representatives  of  a  Southern  State  in  relation  to  an  institu 
tion  purely  local,  and  enforcing  the  wisdom  and  propriety  of 
clemency  and  moderation  in  the  legislation  about  to  be  adopt 
ed.  I  dwell  upon  this,  because  the  views  of  Mr.  Pinkney 
have  been  singularly  misconceived  and  misrepresented  on  the 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINRNEY.  19 

floor  of  the  American  Senate.  His  name  has  been  identified 
with  modern  abolitionism.  The  speeches  of  his  youth  have 
been  arrayed  against  the  grand  effort  in  the  Missouri  compro 
mise  in  the  maturity  of  his  years  ;  with  what  show  of  justice 
will  be  seen,  when  we  compare  the  positions  in  which  he  stood 
in  the  one  case  and  the  other.  In  the  Legislature  of  Maryland, 
he  raised  his  voice  against  what  appeared  to  him  to  be  cruel 
and  oppressive  legislation,  touching  an  institution  all  her 
own,  within  the  express  terms  and  spirit  of  the  constitution. 
He  implored  Marylanders  to  do,  what  it  was  perfectly  com 
petent  for  them  to  do  with  their  own,  in  the  spirit  of  an  en 
lightened  and  elevated  humanity.  There  was  not  one  word 
uttered  against  the  clear  constitutional  rights  of  a  sovereign 
State  of  this  Union — not  one  principle  advanced  that  was  in 
violation  of  that  great  constitutional  compromise.  He  was 
pleading  on  Maryland  soil  with  Marylanders,  for  the  exercise 
of  a  clemency  and  justice  in  her  legislation,  that  was  per 
fectly  in  consonance  with  her  constitutional  rights  and  priv 
ileges.  He  who  can  discover  any  sort  of  affinity  between 
this  earnest  remonstrance,  addressed  to  the  constitutional 
authorities  of  a  sovereign  State,  and  the  revolutionary  and 
inflammatory  appeals  of  abolitionism,  which  assail  constitu 
tional  prerogatives  and  war  upon  State  sovereignty,  possess 
es  a  power  of  tracing  resemblances  between  things  that  are 
intrinsically  unlike  ;  and  confounds  all  the  existing  and  well 
established  distinctions  that  divide  contrarieties  from  each 
other. 

In  the  Missouri  compromise,  on  the  floor  of  the  Ameri 
can  Senate,  Mr.  Pinkney  maintained  the  right  of  the  State 
under  the  constitution  to  regulate  and  control  this  institution 
for  itself,  and  denied  the  power  of  Congress  to  place  any  re 
striction  upon  a  State  applying  for  admission.  There  is  no 
antagonism  between  the  views  of  Mr.  Pinkney  during  any 
period  of  his  public  career  upon  this  delicate  and  important 
subject.  He  was  too  zealous  and  consistent  a  supporter  of 


20  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

the  constitution  to  have  ever  sanctioned  aggression,  either  of 
the  States  upon  the  general  government  or  the  general  gov 
ernment  upon  the  States.  Those  who  have  invoked  his 
name  to  the  support  of  principles,  that  are  destructive  of  the 
peace,  harmony,  and  perpetuity  of  the  Union,  have  done 
great  injustice  to  his  memory  ;  and  for  lack  of  knowledge  or 
want  of  reflection  have  failed  to  distinguish  between  things 
essentially  diverse.  The  perpetration  of  the  injustice  is  not 
so  wonderful  as  the  failure  to  rectify  it  when  pointed  out. 

At  this  early  period  of  his  professional  and  legislative 
career,  he  was  noted  for  the  careless  simplicity  of  his  dress 
and  manners ;  the  very  opposite  of  the  punctilious  and  stu 
dious  elegance  and  attention  to  dress,  which  he  acquired  in 
foreign  courts,  to  avoid  singularity,  and  which  he  retained  to 
the  close  of  life. 

In  1789  Mr.  Pinkney  was  united  to  Miss  Ann  Maria, 
daughter  of  John  Kodgers,  Esq.,  of  Havre  de  Grace,  and  sis 
ter  of  Commodore  John  Kodgers ;  a  man  of  bold,  chivalrous 
spirit,  who  never  tarnished  the  flag  under  which  he  sailed, 
and  lost  no  opportunity  of  seeking  to  plant  it  in  triumph, 
whenever  he  navigated  the  seas. 

Ten  children  were  the  fruit  of  this  marriage,  all  of  whom, 
with  the  beautiful  and  accomplished  lady  who  united  her 
happiness  and  destiny  to  his,  survived  him.  Mrs.  Pinkney 
lived  to  an  honorable  old  age ;  and  her  declining  years, 
though  saddened  by  severe  bodily  infirmity,  were  soothed  by 
those  who  best  knew  her  worth,  until  death  gently  closed 
the  scene.  She  was  in  early  life  the  picture  of  health  and 
feminine  beauty.  Her  easy  manner,  affability  of  disposition, 
and  strong  vigorous  intellect,  eminently  qualified  her  to 
adorn  the  social  position  she  was  called  to  fill,  and  fitted 
her  to  cheer  the  anxious  careworn  pilgrimage  of  her  illus 
trious  consort.  She  paid  his  memory  the  most  precious  trib 
ute  of  affection  and  respect,  and  sought  and  found,  in  the 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  21 

bosom  of  her  family  and  a  few  select  and  tried  friends,  the 
solace  of  her  widowhood. 

In  1790  he  was  elected  a  member  of  Congress  by  the 
citizens  of  his  adopted  county.  His  election  was  contested, 
but,  after  a  most  powerful  and  conclusive  argument  in  his 
own  behalf,  ratified  and  confirmed.  He  however  subsequently 
declined  the  honor  for  reasons  of  a  prudential  and  private 
nature. 

In  1792  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Executive  Council 
of  Maryland,  of  which  he  was  for  a  time  the  president.  This 
position  of  great  responsibility,  under  the  old  Constitution, 
he  filled  with  increasing  reputation  and  ability. 

In  1796  he  was  appointed  commissioner  to  England  un 
der  the  seventh  article  of  Jay's  treaty  in  connection  with  Mr. 
Gore.     This  was  a  truly  honorable  appointment,  the  more 
honorable  because  conferred  without  solicitation  by  the  dis 
crimination  of  a  Washington,  who  in  his    own  State  was 
surrounded  by  the  very  stars  of  the  Kepublic,  and  in  the 
bestowment  of  office  looked  to  the  qualifications,  and  refused 
to  be  swayed  in  his  choice  by  narrow,  contracted  or  local  pre 
judices  ;  which  alas  !  in  our  day  too  much  influence  executive 
patronage.     Official  position  adds  nothing  to  the  intrinsic 
intellectual  power  and  moral  greatness  of  a  man.     It  only 
affords  a  sphere  for  the  display  of  the  talent,  and  exhibition 
of  the  high  qualities  for  rule  that  are  possessed.     It  does 
not  enrich  or  endow.     It  only  developes.     But  still  in  those 
early  days  it  was  a  sure  and  unerring  indication  of  talent ; 
for  office  was  then  conferred,  not  sought,  the  reward  of  dis 
tinction,  not  the  price  of  servile  partisanship.     The  manner 
in  which  he  discharged  the  duties  of  his  high  functions  during 
this  embassage  is  matter  of  history;  and  his  recorded  opinions 
are  splendid  specimens  of  profound  and  eloquent  argumen 
tation,  worthy  of  the  country  he  represented  and  the  distin 
guished   legal   ability  that  characterized  the  discussion  he 
was  called  upon  in  part  to  adjudicate.     He  also  rendered 


22  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

most  valuable  service  to  the  State  of  Maryland  in  recovering 
800,000  dollars,  which  was  acknowledged  in  a  public  vote  of 
thanks  by  the  Legislature. 

Mr.  Pinkney's  private  correspondence  during  the  period 
of  his  absence  on  this  mission  is  very  beautiful  and  interest 
ing.  Although  much  of  it  has  been  unhappily  lost,  it  is  in 
my  power  to  add  a  few  letters,  that  have  never  before  graced 
the  pages  of  any  preceding  biography.  Dr.  Johnson  in  his 
life  of  Pope  admonishes  us  that  "epistolary  intercourse  affords 
the  strongest  temptation  to  fallacy  and  sophistication/7  and 
scouts  the  idea  that  "the  true  character  of  men  may  be 
found  in  their  letters."  There  is  doubtless  much  force  and 
truth  in  the  views  of  the  venerable  Doctor ;  but  still  we 
incline  to  the  opinion  of  another  of  England's  noble  writers 
"  that  the  comparison  of  letters,  from  whatever  hand,  will 
assist  materially  in  estimating  the  disposition  as  well  as  the 
talents  of  a  writer."  A  criterion  it  is  ; — but  one  which  must 
be  narrowly  watched,  entertained  with  caution,  and  carefully 
weighed.  In  interweaving  portions  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  letters 
into  this  memoir,  I  do  not  so  much  design  to  illustrate 
character  as  to  give  currency  to  his  views  and  reflections  on 
men  and  things.  A  rich  variety  was  put  into  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Wheaton,  consisting  of  letters  from  England,  Naples, 
Kussia,  and  Italy,  written  to  individuals  in  different  parts 
of  the  country  arid  never  designed  for  the  perusal  of  any  but 
the  warm,  tried  friends  of  his  heart.  Of  those  that  were 
not  published  (among  which  were  some  of  the  most  beautiful) 
none,  that  I  know  of,  were  returned  to  his  friends.  A  few 
have  been  received  from  unexpected  quarters ;  these  will  be 
read  with  satisfaction,  and  leave  an  increased  regret  that 
the  lost  cannot  be  now  recovered.  There  is  one  noble  quality 
in  those  letters,  viz.,  their  freedom  from  haughty  egotism  and 
bitter  acrimony.  There  is  no  effort  at  what  may  be  called 
fine  writing ;  no  gush  of  heart-revealing  in  them.  They 
are  the  natural,  unaffected,  artless  interchange  of  thought. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  23 

To  entertain,  please  and  instruct.,  was  his  end  and  aim — to 
describe  what  he  saw  and  felt,  was  his  simple,  single-minded 
desire.  We  read  without  effort,  and  rise  from  the  perusal, 
charmed  with  their  natural  eloquence,  simplicity  and  beauty. 
We  listen  to  his  first  impressions  of  England  and  her  great 
and  distinguished  sons,  and  find  them  delivered  with  freedom, 
but  in  a  spirit  of  friendly  criticism.  He  held  the  mind  of 
Pitt  in  august  admiration.  He  admired  Wilberforce  ;  revered 
his  character,  and  secured  his  warmest  friendship  and  most 
unbounded  admiration.  He  duly  appreciated  the  power 
and  skill  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  that  great  country;  and 
showed  his  high  respect  for  parliamentary  eloquence  by  a 
patient  and  unflagging  attendance  upon  its  debates. 


MR.    PINKNEY    TO    HIS   BROTHER   JONATHAN. 

"  LONDON,  26i!/i  August,  1796. 

"  DEAR  J.  : — We  are  now  London  housekeepers.  I  found 
it  would  not  answer  to  take  lodgings  unless  we  meant  to  do 
penance  instead  of  being  comfortable.  Our  present  residence 
is  merely  temporary.  I  have  taken  a  short  lease  of  a  new 
house  in  Upper  Guilford-street,  No.  5,  to  which  we  shall  re 
move  in  about  six  weeks.  The  situation  is  airy,  genteel, 
and  convenient  enough  to  the  commissioner's  office.  We  are 
compelled  to  live  handsomely,  to  avoid  singularity;  but  our 
view  is  still  to  be  as  economical  as  the  requisite  style  of 
living  will  admit.  vWe  do  not,  and  shall  not  want  for  the 
most  respectable  and  agreeable  society.  The  American 
families  here  are  on  the  most  friendly  and  intimate  footing 
with  us,  and  we  have  as  many  English  acquaintances  as  we 
desire.  In  short,  we  may  pass  our  time  here  (for  a  few 
years  to  come)  with  considerable  satisfaction — not  so  happily, 
indeed,  as  at  Annapolis,  but  still  with  much  comfort  and 
many  gratifications.  My  health  is  apparently  bettered,  and 
Mrs.  P.  is  evidently  mending, — but  we  have  not  yet  had 


24  LIFE   OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

sufficient  experience  of  the  climate  to  be  able  to  conjectur© 
its  future  effects  on  us.  The  child  continues  well. 

"  Our  namesake  (the  late  American  Minister)  is  an  amia 
ble  man.  We  have  been  much  with  him,  and  have  received 
from  him  every  possible  attention.  He  unites  with  an  ex 
cellent  understanding  the  most  pleasing  manners,  and  is  at 
once  the  man  of  sense  and  the  polished  gentleman.  Every 
body  speaks  Avell  of  him,  and  deservedly.  There  is  no  doubt 
of  our  relationship.  His  family  came  from  the  North — I 
think  from  Durham,  where  he  tells  me  he  still  has  relations. 
The  loss  of  his  wife  appears  to  have  affected  him  deeply,  and 
has  doubtless  occasioned  his  anxiety  to  return  to  America. 
He  leaves  us  soon,  and  I  am  sorry  that  he  does  so. 

"  Yesterday  we  appointed  the  fifth  commissiorier  by  lot, 
He  is  an  American  (Colonel  John  Trumbull),  and  was  secre 
tary  to  Mr.  Jay,  when  envoy  at  this  court.  I  made  the 
draft.  We  all  qualified  this  morning  before  the  Lord  Mayor, 
and  shall  commence  business  very  soon.  Every  thing  in  re 
lation  to  the  commission  wears  at  present  a  favorable  aspect., 
and  I  have  now  expectations  of  being  able  to  return  to  my 
friends  within  a  period  much  shorter  than  I  had  ventured  to 
hope  for. 

"  2d  Sept.  1796,  P.  S.— Your  letter  of  the  26th  June  has 
just  reached  me.  Be  assured  that  nothing  can  diminish  my 
attachment  to  Annapolis.  I  have  nothing  to  complain  of 
from  the  inhabitants  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  have  done  me 
honor  beyond  rny  merit.  I  feel  the  worth  of  their  atten 
tions,  and  shall  never  lose  the  grateful  recollection  of  them. 
They  have  treated  me  with  flattering  and  friendly  distinc 
tions,  and  I  will  never  give  them  cause  to  regret  it.  In  a 
word,  the  hope  of  once  more  becoming  an  inhabitant  of  my 
native  city  forms  one  of  my  greatest  pleasures.  If  I  cannot 
be  happy  there,  I  cannot  be  happy  any  where.  If  I  were  to 
settle  in  any  other  place,  interest,  not  inclination,  must  give 
rise  to  it.  I  know  not  where  the  wish  of  procuring  a  com- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  25 

petence  may  hereafter  fix  me  ;  but  if  that  competence  can 
be  obtained  at  Annapolis,  there  will  I  labor  for  it. 

"I  intended  to  have  written  to  Mr.  James  Williams,  but 
have  been  so  much  interrupted  and  engaged  as  not  to  be  able 
to  do  so.  Indeed  I  have  no  subject  for  a  letter  but  what  is 
exhausted  in  this.  His  friendly  offices  on  the  eve  of  my 
departure,  proved  the  goodness  of  his  heart,  and  made  a  deep 
impression  on  mine.  Let  me  be  remembered  to  him  in  the 
warmest  terms.  I  will  write  to  all  my  friends  in  due  time, 
and  in  the  interim  tell  them  to  write  to  me — a  letter  is  now 
of  real  value  to  me. 

"Sept.  18th,  P.  S. — I  missed  the  opportunity  of  sending 
my  letter,  and  do  not  now  know  when  I  shall  have  another. 

"  The  shooting  season  began  here  the  15th  insfc.,  but  I 
have  not  yet  had  a  gun  in  hand.  I  envy  Dr.  Sheaff  the 
sport  he  will  have  in  the  neighborhood  of  Annapolis.  There 
can  be  none  in  this  country  to  equal  it. 

"  Adieu  :  if  I  keep  my  letter  by  me  much  longer,  it  will 
become  a  volume  of  postscripts. 

"  October  14th. — I  have  just  got  yours  of  the  14th  Aug. 
It  is  kind  in  you  to  write  thus  often.  Persevere  in  a  prac 
tice  so  well  begun,  and  you  will  oblige  me  highly.  The 
commissioners  commenced  business  the  10th  inst.  I  was 
presented  to  the  King  on  Wednesday  last  at  St.  James's. 
It  was  necessary,  and  I  am  glad  it  was,  for  while  I  am  here 
I  wish  to  see  as  much  as  possible.  I  was  in  the  House  of 
Lords  at  the  opening  of  Parliament,  and  heard  his  majesty 
deliver  his  speech  ;  but  I  was  not  able  to  hear  the  debate 
upon  it  in  the  House  of  Commons,  as  I  wished  to  do.  I  have 
attended  the  theatre  pretty  often,  and  have  seen  all  their 
great  performers.  Be  assured  that  we  are  accustomed  in 
America  to  rate  their  excellence  too  high.  There  is  hardly 
an  exhibition  in  London  which  report  does  not  exaggerate  to 
us.  I  was  led  to  expect  more  than  I  have  been  able  to  find. 
There  are  subjects,  however,  upon  which  I  have  not  been 


26  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

disappointed  ;  the  beauty  and  flourishing  appearance  of  the 
country — the  excellence  of  the  roads — the  extent  and  perfec 
tion  of  their  various  manufactures — the  enormous  stock  of 
individual  wealth  which  town  and  country  exhibits,  &c.,  &c., 
cannot  be  too  strongly  anticipated." 


MK.    PINKNEY   TO   THE   HON.    VANZ   MURRY. 

LONDON,  February  9th,  1797. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  thank  you  for  requesting  to  hear 
from  me,  but  did  not  intend  to  wait  for  such  a  request.  I 
wished  to  feel  a  little  at  home  before  I  troubled  you  with  a 
letter — and  a  stranger  in  London  continues  a  stranger  for 
some  time.  I  find  it  difficult,  even  now,  to  accommodate 
myself  to  a  world  in  all  respects  new  to  me.  My  habits 
were  at  variance  with  a  London  life,  and  habits  contracted  at 
an  early  period,  and  long  cherished,  are  stubborn  things.  I 
have,  however,  made  a  virtue  of  necessity,  and  struggled  with 
considerable  industry  to  like  what  I  must  submit  to  whether 
I  like  it  or  not.  Still  I  cannot  look  back  upon  my  own 
country  without  strong  regrets.  Absence  has  consecrated 
and  swelled  into  importance  the  veriest  trifles  I  have  left  be 
hind  me.  You  have  doubtless  experienced  this  enthusiastic 
retrospect,  and  know  with  what  soft  and  mellow  colorings 
imagination  paints  the  past  in  a  situation  like  mine,  and 
how  the  visionary  picture  indisposes  one  to  the  scenes  of  the 
moment.  Upon  the  whole,  however  (when  I  can  keep  down 
this  picture  drawing  propensity),  I  manage  better  than  I  ex 
pected.  I  have  found  here  those  whom  it  would  be  want  of 
liberality  not  to  esteem.  I  have  found  much  to  amuse  and 
more  to  instruct  me. 

"  Our  circle  of  acquaintance  is  a  pleasant  one,  and  as 
extensive  as  we  wish  it ;  and  if  I  did  not  find  some  friends, 
too,  in  such  a  place  as  London,  I  should  be  afraid  that  I  did 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  27 

not  deserve  any.  In  short,  my  time  passes  agreeably,  though 
not  so  happily  as  in  Maryland  :  my  fancy  is  more  amused 
and  my  understanding  more  widely  occupied,  but  the  heart 
is  not  so  much  interested. 

"It  is  the  misfortune  of  almost  all  travellers,  that  they 
set  out  with  expectations  so  extravagant  that  their  gratifica 
tion  is  absolutely  impossible.  This  was  in  great  measure 
my  case,  and  the  consequence  has  been  frequent  disappoint 
ment.  I  presume  it  is  to  be  attributed  to  my  too  sanguine 
anticipation,  that  I  have  seen  Mrs.  Siddons  in  her  most 
favorite  character  without  emotion  or  approbation — that  I 
have  heard  Mr.  Fox  on  the  most  interesting  and  weighty 
subjects,  without  discovering  that  he  is  an  orator — that  I 
have  heard  Mr.  Grey  on  the  same  occasions,  without  thinking 
him  above  mediocrity — in  short,  that  I  have  seen  and  heard 
much  that  I  was  told  I  should  admire,  without  admiring  it 
at  all.  Mr.  Pitt  indeed  has  not  disappointed  me.  He  is 
truly  a  wonderful  man.  I  never  heard  so  clear  and  masterly 
a  reasoner,  or  a  more  effectual  declaimer.  They  have  all 
one  fault,  however.  iThey  do  not  understand  the  power 
which  may  be  given  to  the  human  voice  by  tones  and  modu 
lations.  In  consequence  of  our  public  character,  Gore  and 
myself  are  allowed  to  sit  under  the  gallery  of  the  House  of 
Commons — a  privilege  of  which  you  will  suppose  I  do  not 
omit  to  avail  myself — I  could  sit  there  for  ever  to  listen  to 
Mr.  Pitt.  In  argument  he  is  beyond  example  correct  and 
perspicuous — and  in  declamation  energetic  and  commanding. 
His  style  might  serve  as  a  model  of  classical  elegance,  and 
has  no  defect,  unless  it  be  that  it  is  sometimes  overloaded 
with  parentheses;  You  have  seen  and  heard  him,  and  there 
fore  need  not  be  told  that  his  manner  is  against  him — that 
his  voice  is  full  and  impressive  and  his  articulation  unusually 
distinct.  I  thought  at  first  that  his  pronunciation  was  too 
precise  and  analytic.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  spelling  pro 
nunciation,  that  gives  unnecessary  body  and  importance  to 


28  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

every  syllable  ;  but  I  am  now  familiarized  to  tihis  scholastic 
particularity,  and  hardly  feel  its  impropriety.  ^  observe  that 
he,  as  well  as  Mr.  Fox,  closes  his  periods  with  a  cadence 
unknown  in  America.  I  think  it  unmusical  and  harsh.  It 
is,  however,  so  completely  fashionable,  that  you  meet  with  it 
even  in  Westminster  Hall.  Of  Mr.  Fox,  I  think  that  he 
has  a  vigorous  mind — but  that  he  is  a  speaker  in  spite  of 
nature  and  his  stars.  He  is,  notwithstanding,  generally  pow 
erful  in  debate.  I  have  heard  Mr.  Erskine  once — in  the 
House  of  Commons.  I  thought  nothing  of  him,  but  I  am 
assured  by  good  judges  that  at  the  Bar  he  is  formidable,  and 
indeed  eloquent,  although  he  makes  no  figure  in  parliament. 
I  do  not  understand  this — but  I  know  one  half  of  the  fact  to 
be  true  in  Mr.  Erskine' s  case. 

"  Mr.  Secretary  Dundas  is  mediocre.  I  incline  to  think 
that  in  America  the  ait  of  speaking  is  more  advanced  than 
any  other  country.  We  have,  it  is  true,  swarms  of  praters, 
but  we  have  also  more  (I  mean  a  greater  number  of)  able 
speakers  than  are  to  be  found  here  or  elsewhere.  ^The  Bar, 
in  this  country,  are  sound  lawyers,  but  nothing  more.  In 
America  they  are  something  more.  Perhaps  in  all  this  I 
make  my  estimate  a  little  too  petulantly,  and  with  too  much 
pride  of  country  about  me  ;  but  I  am  writing  to  you  who 
have  the  same  prejudices,  and  can  make  allowance  for  me. 

"  You  will  have  heard,  before  my  letter  reaches  you,  of 
the  wonderful  victory  obtained  by  Bonaparte  over  the  fifth 
army  of  the  Emperor  in  Italy — 23,000  prisoners  and  6,000 
slain  !  It  is  almost  beyond  belief — and  we  have  yet  nothing 
upon  which  to  ground  belief  but  the  French  accounts.  They 
state,  however,  the  official  dispatches  of  Bonaparte  to  the 
Directory — and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  doubt  them. 
If  they  be  true,  the  fate  of  Italy  is  decided.  Wurmser, 
however,  still  holds  out  in  Mantua — but  it  is  uncertain 
whether  Alvinzi  succeeded  in  throwing  provisions  into  the 
garrison  or  not.  That  Wurmser  was  in  great  want  of  pro- 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  29 

visions  is  certain,  and  to  relieve  him  in  this  respect  was  the 
great  object  of  the  attack  of  the  Austrians  on  Bonaparte. 

"  You  will  also  have  heard  of  the  attempt  by  the  French 
to  make  a  descent  on  Ireland.  The  weather  defeated  it ; 
but  the  greatest  part  of  the  vessels  sent  on  this  wild  expedi 
tion  have  returned  safe  to  France.  We  do  not  know  precise 
ly  how  Mr.  Pinkney  stands  at  Paris.  He  has  not  been  re 
ceived,  and  the  papers  here  state  that  he  is  about  to  leave 
Paris  for  Amsterdam,  to  wait  the  orders  of  his  government ; 
but  this  wants  confirmation. 

"  The  Emperor  of  Kussia  seems  to  embarrass  all  the  bel 
ligerents.  An  universal  pacification  is  supposed  to  be  his 
object.  He  has  much  in  his  power  ;  and  it  is  fervently  to  be 
wished  that  he  may  make  a  proper  use  of  his  situation. 

"  Our  commission  has  experienced  some  unexpected  em 
barrassments,  but  the  government  has  removed  them  in  a 
way  highly  honorable  and  satisfactory.  The  king's  agent 
objected  to  our  jurisdiction  in  a  case — a  leading  feature  of 
which  was  that  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  appeal  had  af 
firmed  the  original  condemnation.  When  the  fifth  commis 
sioner,  Gore,  and  myself  were  ready  to  overrule  this  objection, 
our  right  to  decide  upon  our  own  jurisdiction  was  brought 
into  question  !  The  government  has  said  that  both  points 
were  against  those  who  started  them,  and  we  are  now  pros 
perously  under  way  again.  I  have  no  fears  of  a  fair  execu 
tion  of  the  7th  article  by  this  country. 

"  This  letter  is  becoming  so  unreasonably  long,  that  I 
will  only  add  that  I  am  in  every  sense  of  the  word  your  sin 
cere  friend. 

"  P.  S. — When  you  go  to  Baltimore,  if  you  should  have 
any  curiosity  to  know  the  precise  nature  of  the  embarrass 
ments  above  alluded  to,  Mr.  Chase  will  show  you  an  explana 
tion  of  them  which  I  send  him  by  the  same  vessel  which  car 
ries  this  ;  be  good  enough  to  write  to  me  as  often  as  your 
leisure  will  allow.  Mr.  McDonald  (one  of  the  commissioners 


30  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

on  the  part  of  this  government  under  the  6th  article  of  the 
Treaty),  who  is  just  on  the  point  of  sailing  for  America,  I  am 
acquainted  with.  If  you  should  meet  him,  I  need  not 
ask  you  to  attend  to  him  when  I  inform  you  that  he  is  an 
amiable,  well-informed  gentleman,  and  carries  with  him  the 
best  disposition  towards  our  country." 


MR.    PINKNEY    TO   HIS   BROTHER   JONATHAN. 

"LONDON,  2Qth  April,  1799. 

"  DEAR  J.  : — I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  4th  of 
March,  inclosing  one  for  Mr.  Trumbull ;  but  that  of  the 
17th  of  April,  covering  a  duplicate  of  Mr.  TrumbmTs  letter, 
I  have  not  received.  Mr.  T.  has  charged  me  with  his  thanks 
for  your  attention,  and  will,  I  presume,  write  to  you  him 
self. 

"  I  am  grieved  by  the  style  of  your  letter.  If  I  have 
neglected  you,  it  has  not  been  from  want  of  affection  or  for- 
getfulness  of  what  I  owe  to  your  worth.  I  did  not  know 
that  it  would  be  acceptable  to  you  to  hear  very  often  or  very 
fully  from  me ;  and  if  on  that  account  I  have  sometimes 
made  you  trust  to  others  for  tidings  of  me,  and  at  other 
times  have  written  rather  scantily  on  subjects  that  might 
have  been  interesting  to  you,  I  ask  to  be  forgiven. 

"  To  say  the  truth,  a  long  letter  of  a  mere  friendly  com 
plexion  is  not  easily  made.  It  would  be  idle  to  give  you  in 
such  a  letter  the  news  of  the  moment,  for  the  news  would 
cease  to  be  so  before  the  letter  could  reach  you  ;  and  I  should 
fatigue  you  to  death  if  I  were  to  doom  you  to  read  accounts 
of  London  amusements,  or  of  the  manner  in  which  I  pass  my 
time.  Such  details  would  soon  have  no  novelty  to  recom 
mend  them,  and  would  lose  all  attraction. 

"  I  have  seen  in  this  country,  and  continue  to  see  much 
that  deserves  the  attention  of  him  that  would  be  wise  or 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  31 

happy ;  but  I  would  prefer  making  all  this  the  subject  of 
conversation,  when  Providence  shall  permit  us  to  meet  again, 
to  putting  it  imperfectly  on  paper  for  your  perusal  when  we 
are  separated.  There  is  not  perhaps  a  more  dangerous  thing 
for  him  who  aims  at  consistency,  or  at  least  the  appearance 
of  it,  than  to  hasten  to  record  impressions  as  they  are  made 
upon  his  mind  by  a  state  of  things  to  which  he  has  not  been 
accustomed,  and  to  give  that  record  out  of  his  own  posses 
sion.  I  have  made  conclusions  here,  from  time  to  time,  which 
I  have  afterwards  discarded  as  absurd ;  and  I  could  wish 
that  some  of  these  conclusions  did  not  show  themselves  in 
more  than  one  of  the  letters  I  have  occasionally  written  to 
my  friends.  *I  have  made  false  estimates  of  men  and  things, 
and  have  corrected  them  as  I  have  been  able  ;  in  this  there 
was  nothing  to  blush  for,  for  who  is  there  that  can  say  he 
has  not  done  the  same  ?  'But  I  confess  that  I  do  feel  some 
little  regret,  when  I  remember  that  I  have  sent  a  few  (though 
to  say  the  truth,  very  few)  of  those  estimates  across  the 
Atlantic,  as  indisputably  accurate,  and  have  either  deceived 
those  to  whom  they  were  sent,  or  afforded  them  grounds  for 
thinking  me  a  precipitate  or  superficial  observer.  The  con 
sciousness  of  this  has  indisposed  me  to  a  repetition  of  simi 
lar  conduct ;  and  I  have  desired  so  to  write  in  future  as  to 
be  able  to  change  ill-founded  opinions  without  the  hazard  of 
being  convicted  of  capriciousness  or  folly.  You  will  observe 
that  I  am  all  this  time  endeavoring  to  make  my  peace  with 
you  on  the  score  of  your  complaint  of  negligence  ;  but  after 
all,  I  must  in  great  measure  rely  upon  your  disposition  to 
bear  with  my  faults,  and  to  overlook  those  you  cannot  fully 
acquit.  I  must  not,  however,  omit  to  state  my  belief  that  you 
do  not  receive  all  the  letters  I  send  you,  and  of  course  that 
I  appear  to  you  more  culpable  than  I  really  am. 

"  I  wish  I  could  tell  you  when  I  shall  be  likely  to  see 
you  ;  although  my  time  passes  in  a  way  highly  gratifying,  I 
am  anxious  to  return.  Our  acquaintance  has  lately  very 


32  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINRNEY. 

much  enlarged  itself,  and  our  situation  is  altogether  peculiar 
ly  pleasant  for  foreigners  ;  but  I  sigh  now  and  then  for  home. 
\ll  am  told  I  am  considerably  altered  since  I  came  here,  and  I 
incline  to  think  there  is  some  foundation  for  it ;  but  I  shall 
not  grow  much  wiser  or  better  by  a  longer  stay.  I  am  be 
coming  familiar  with  almost  every  thing  around  me,  and  do 
not  look  out  upon  life  with  as  much  intentness  of  observa 
tion  as  heretofore,  and  of  course  I  am  now  rather  confirming 
former  acquisitions  of  knowledge  than  laying  in  new  stores 
for  the  future — I  begin  to  languish  for  my  profession — I  want 
active  employment.  The  business  of  the  commission  does 
not  occupy  me  sufficiently,  and  visiting,  &c.,  with  the  aid  of 
much  reading,  cannot  supply  the  deficiency.  My  time  is  al 
ways  filled  in  some  way  or  other ;  but  I  think  I  should  be 
the  better  for  a  speech  now  and  then.  Perhaps  another 
twelvemonth  may  give  me  the  opportunity  of  making  speeches 
till  I  get  tired  of  them — and  tire  others  too. 

"  There  are  some  respects  in  which  it  may  be  better  that 
I  should  remain  here  a  little  longer ;  my  health,  though 
greatly  mended,  is  still  delicate — I  looJc  better  than  I  am  ; 
and  perhaps  a  summer  at  Brighton  or  Cheltenham  may  make 
me  stronger.  The  last  winter  has  been  unfavorable  to  me, 
by  affecting  my  stomach  severely,  and  I  have  at  this  mo 
ment  the  same  affection  in  a  less  degree  accompanied  with  a 
considerable  headache.  I  ought  to  have  good  health,  for  I 
take  pains  to  acquire  it  ;  and  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to 
abandon  the  use  of  tobacco,  to  which  I  was  once  a  slave.  It 
is  now  about  eighteen  months  since  I  have  tasted  this  per 
nicious  weed ;  but  I  did  not  forbear  the  use  of  it  solely  on 
account  of  my  health;1^!  found  that  it  was  considered  here 
as  a  vulgar  habit,  which  he  who  desired  society  must  discard." 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  33 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   THE   SAME. 

"LONDON,  14th  February,  1800. 

"  DEAR  J.  : — It  is  now  so  long  since  I  have  had  a  line 
from  you  that  I  must  conclude  I  have  been  unlucky  enough 
to  give  you  offence,  for  which  it  is  necessary  I  should  atone. 
What  it  can  be  I  have  no  means  of  conjecturing  ;  but  let  it 
be  what  it  may,  you  ought  to  believe  that  it  has  been  wholly 
accidental.  You  complained  to  me  some  time  ago  that  I  was  a 
negligent  correspondent ;  I  explained  the  cause,  and  asked  to 
be  forgiven.  If  that  explanation  did  not  satisfy  you,  at 
least  my  prayer  of  pardon  had  some  claim  to  be  well  receiv 
ed.  I  think  I  know  you  so  well  that  I  may  venture  to  be 
certain  you  are  not  angry  with  me  for  the  old  reason.  There 
must  be  some  new  ground  of  exception.  Let  me  know  it,  I 
entreat  you,  and  I  will  make  amends  as  far  as  I  am  able.  I 
had  indeed  hoped  that  it  would  not  be  for  ordinary  matters 
that  you  would  forget  my  claims  to  your  friendship,  if  not 
your  affection.  I  had  supposed  that  you  would  not  lightly 
have  been  induced  to  treat  me  as  a  stranger ;  and  to  substi 
tute  the  cold  intercourse  of  ceremony  for  that  of  the  heart. 
Why  will  you  allow  me  to  be  disappointed  in  expectations  so 
reasonable,  and  so  justly  founded  on  the  natural  goodness  of 
your  disposition,  and  the  soundness  of  your  understanding  ? 
Can  you  imagine  that  I  do  not  recollect  how  much  I  am  in 
debted  to  your  kindness  on  various  occasions,  and  how  strong 
is  your  title  to  my  attachment  and  respect  ?  If  I  have  ap 
peared  to  slight  your  letters  by  sometimes  giving  them  short 
answers,  and  sometimes  delaying  to  give  them  any,  can  you 
think  so  meanly  of  me  as  to  suppose  that  therefore  I  have 
not  placed  a  proper  value  on  them  and  you  ?  I  declare  to 
God  that  if  you  have  made  this  supposition,  you  have  been 
unjust  both  to  yourself  and  me.  There  is  not  a  person  on 
earth  for  whom  I  have  a  more  warm  and  sincere  regard,  nor 
3 


34  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

is  there  one  whose  correspondence,  while  you  permitted  it  to 
last,  was  more  truly  grateful  to  me.  I  beg  you,  therefore, 
to  resume  it,  and  to  resume  it  cordially.  But  if,  after  all, 
you  are  so  different  from  yourself  as  to  persist  in  regarding 
me  as  one  who  has  no  better  ties  upon  you  than  the  rest  of 
the  world,  at  least  tell  me  why  it  is  that  this  must  be  so. 

"  Of  the  late  revolution  in  France  and  of  Bonaparte's 
advances  to  negotiation,  with  the  rejection  of  these  advances,, 
you  will  have  heard  before  this  can  reach  you.  I  was  pres 
ent  very  lately  in  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  debate  on 
the  rejection  of  these  overtures.  So  able  and  eloquent  a 
speech  as  Mr.  Pitt's  on  that  occasion  I  never  witnessed.  Ex 
perience  only  can  decide  how  far  the  conduct  he  vindicated 
was  wise.  Administration  have  undoubtedly  sanguine  hopes 
of  restoring  the  House  of  Bourbon  ;  and  prodigious  efforts 
will  be  made  during  the  next  campaign  with  that  object.  I 
do  not  think  that  this  will  succeed.  The  co-operation  of 
Kussia  still  remains  equivocal;  but  even  if  Kussia  should 
give  all  her  strength  to  the  confederacy,  it  will  riot  have 
power  to  force  upon  France  the  ancient  dynasty  of  that  coun 
try  with  all  the  consequences  inseparable  from  it.  The  present 
government  of  that  ill-fated  nation  is  a  mockery — a  rank 
usurpation  by  which  political  freedom  is  annihilated  ;  but  it 
is  a  government  of  energy,  and  will  be  made  yet  more  so  by 
an  avowed  attempt  to  overturn  it  by  a  foreign  army  in  fa 
vor  of  the  exiled  family.  This  is  my  opinion  ;  but  the  war 
in  Europe  has  so  often  changed  its  aspect  against  all  calcula 
tion  that  prophecies  about  its  future  results,  are  hardly  worth 
the  making.  The  death  of  General  Washington  has  ascer 
tained  how  greatly  he  was  every  where  admired.  The  pane 
gyrics  that  all  parties  here  have  combined  to  bestow  upon 
his  character  have  equalled  those  in  America. 

"  P.  S. — As  our  commission  is  at  a  stand  on  account  of 
the  disagreements  under  the  American  commission,  I  can 
form  no  guess  as  to  the  probable  time  of  my  return.  There 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  35 

is  little  prospect,  however,  of  its  being  very  soon.  I  must  be 
patient,  and  am  determined  to  see  it  out  ;  but  I  wish  most 
ardently  to  revisit  my  country  and  my  friends.  I  think  it 
likely  that  my  brother  commissioner,  Gore,  will  take  a  trip 
to  America  next  summer,  and  come  back  in  the  course  of 
the  autumn.  I  am  afraid  we  shall  both  have  leisure  enough 
for  a  voyage  to  the  East  Indies.  I  have  nothing  to  do  here 
but  to  visit,  read,  write,  and  so  forth.  In  this  idle  course  I 
certainly  grow  older  and  perhaps  a  little  wiser ;  but  I  am 
doing  nothing  to  expedite  my  return. 

"  Pray  can  you  make  out  to  send  me  a  box  of  Spanish 
cigars  ?  If  you  can,  I  will  thank  you ;  for  I  find  it  benefi 
cial  to  smoke  a  cigar  or  two  before  I  go  to  bed.  This  I  do 
by  stealth,  and  in  a  room  devoted  to  that  purpose  ;  for  smok 
ing  here  is  considered  a  most  ungentlemanlike  practice.  Hav 
ing  left  off  chewing  tobacco,  which  was  prejudicial  to  me,  I 
have  taken  up  the  habit  of  smoking  to  a  very  limited  extent 
in  lieu  of  it ;  and  as  I  find  it  serviceable  to  me,  and  nobody 
knows  it,  I  think  I  shall  continue  it.  Remember  me  affec 
tionately  to  Ninian,  and  tell  him  I  mean  to  write  to  him 
soon.  Mrs.  Pinkney  hears  that  William  is  able  to  write 
something  like  a  letter.  If  this  be  so,  she  begs  you  will  re 
quest  Ninian  to  make  him  write  to  her." 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   THE   SAME. 

"LONDON,  August  Vlth,  1800. 

"  DEAR  J. :  I  received  your  letter  of  the  27th  May,  while 
in  the  country,  and  delayed  answering  it  till  my  return  to 
town.  For  your  good  intentions  relative  to  the  cigars,  I  am 
much  obliged  to  you,  and  I  heartily  wish  it  was  in  my  power 
to  thank  you  for  the  cigars  themselves,  of  which  I  have  heard 
nothing  otherwise  than  in  your  letter.  Perhaps  I  may  still 
get  them — but  I  have  not  much  hopes.  Make  my  acknowl- 


36  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

edgments  to  Mr.  Williams  for  the  box  you  speak  of  as  be 
ing  a  present  from  him.  As  there  is  no  person  for  whom  I 
feel  a  more  warm  and  sincere  regard,  and  upon  whose  friend 
ship  I  more  value  myself,  you  may  be  assured  that  this  little 
proof  of  his  recollection  gives  me  the  greatest  pleasure.  I 
shall  not  easily  forget  the  many  kind  attentions  I  have  re 
ceived  from  him  ;  nor  can  I  ever  be  more  happy  than  when 
an  opportunity  shall  occur  of  showing  the  sense  I  entertain 
of  them. 

"  Whether  the  justification  you  offer  for  ceasing  to  write 
to  me  is  a  sound  one  or  not,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  inquire. 
irou  have  written  at  last,  and  this  puts  out  of  the  question 
all  past  omissions.  Perhaps  we  have  been  both  to  blame — 
or  perhaps  the  fault  has  been  wholly  mine.  I  will  not  dis 
pute  with  you  on  this  point,  but  I  entreat  that  in  future  it 
may  be  understood  between  us  that  trifles  are  not  to  be 
allowed  to  bring  into  doubt  our  regard  for  each  other,  and 
that  our  intercourse  is  not  to  be  regulated  by  the  rules  of  a 
rigorous  ceremony.  While  I  admit  what  you  urge  in  regard 
to  my  neglect  of  you,  I  take  leave  to  enter  my  protest  in 
the  strongest  terms  against  the  general  charge  made  in  your 
letter  that  I  have  neglected  several  others  in  the  same  way. 
I  have  had  no  correspondent  in  America  (I  have  excepted 
you)  who  has  not  generally  been  in  my  debt.  The  truth  is, 
my  friends  have  overlooked  me  in  a  strange  way,  and  I  have 
been  compelled  to  jog  their  memories  more  than  perhaps  I 
ought  to  have  done.  As  to  Ninian,  you  know  very  well  that 
in  writing  to  you  I  considered  myself  as  writing  to  him  ;  for 
I  did  not  imagine  it  was  desirable  that  I  should  make  two 
letters,  which  should  be  little  more  than  duplicates,  when 
one  would  serve  just  as  well.  But  since  I  have  discovered 
that  Ninian  wished  me  to  write  to  him,  I  have  taken  plea 
sure  in  doing  so  ;  and  for  some  time  past,  I  think  he  has  no 
cause  to  complain  of  me  on  this  score. 

"  It  is  my  earnest  wish  to  return  home  without  loss  of 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  37 

time,  and  to  apply  in  earnest  to  my  profession  for  the  pur 
pose  of  securing,  while  my  faculties  are  unimpaired,  a  com 
petence  for  my  helpless  family.  For  several  months  past  I 
have  thought  of  desiring  from  my  government  to  be  recalled, 
and  if  the  prospect  of  our  resuming  our  functions  does  not 
greatly  change  for  the  better  before  next  spring,  I  shall  un 
doubtedly  have  recourse  to  this  step.  At  present,  it  is  not 
practicable  to  form  even  a  conjecture  upon  this  subject. 
We  have  been  stopped  by  the  difficulties  that  have  occurred 
under  the  6th  article  of  the  treaty,  and  not  by  any  thing 
depending  on  ourselves,  or  connected  with  our  own  duties. 
If  we  had  not  been  thus  arrested  in  our  progress,  we  should 
have  finished  ere  now,  or  at  farthest  by  Christmas,  to  the 
satisfaction  of  all  parties.  The  arrangement  under  the  6th 
article  will  be  accomplished,  I  am  afraid,  very  slowly,  if  at 
all;  and  even  when  that  arrangement  shall  be  made,  the 
execution  of  it  will  demand  several  years  ;  and  we  are  not,  it 
seems,  to  outstrip  the  advances  it  shall  make.  Thus  it  is 
probable  that  I  shall  grow  old  in  this  country,  unless  I  re 
sign.  In  short,  I  see  very  little  room  to  doubt  that  I  shall 
be  driven  to  this  expedient.  So  much  for  the  mismanage 
ment  and  folly  of  other  people  ! 

"  The  commission  in  America  has  been  wretchedly  bun 
gled.  I  am  entirely  convinced  that  with  discretion  and  mod 
eration  a  better  result  might  have  been  obtained  ;  be  this 
as  it  may,  it  is  time  for  me  to  think  seriously  of  revisiting 
my  country,  and  of  employing  myself  in  a  profitable  pursuit. 
I  shall  soon  begin  to  require  ease  and  retirement ;  my  con 
stitution  is  weak  and  my  health  precarious.  A  few  years  of 
professional  labor  will  bring  me  into  the  sear  and  yellow 
leaf  of  life;  and  if  I  do  not  begin  speedily,  I  shall  begin  too 
late.  To  commence  the  world  at  forty  is  indeed  dreadful ; 
but  I  am  used  to  adverse  fortune,  and  know  how  to  struggle 
with  it ;  my  consolations  cannot  easily  desert  me — the 
consciousness  of  honorable  views,  and  the  cheering  hope 


38  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

that  Providence  will  yet  enable  me  to  pass  my  age  in 
peace.  It  is  not  of  small  importance  to  me  that  I  shall  go 
back  to  the  bar  cured  of  every  propensity  that  could  divert 
me  from  business — stronger  than  when  I  left  it — and,  I  trust, 
somewhat  wiser.  In  regard  to  legal  knowledge,  I  shall  not 
be  worse  than  if  I  had  continued  J/I  have  been  a  regular  and 
industrious  student  for  the  last  two  years,  and  I  believe  my 
self  to  be  a  much  better  lawyer  than  when  I  arrived  in  Eng 
land.  There  are  other  respects,  too,  in  which  I  hope  I  have 
gained  something — how  much,  my  friends  must  judge.  But 
I  am  wearying  you  with  prattle  about  myself,  for  which  I 
ask  you  to  excuse  me. 

"  I  received  Ninian's  letter  by  Mr.  Gore,  but  have  not 
now  time  to  answer  it.  I  wrote  him  very  lately.  Request 
him  to  get  from  Mr.  Yanhorne  the  note-book,  or  note-books 
I  lent  him,  and  to  take  care  of  them  for  me.  In  one  of  my 
note-books  I  made  some  few  reports  of  General  Court  arid 
Chancery  decisions.  Let  it  be  taken  care  of.  When  I  write 
again,  I  hope  to  be  able  to  state  when  it  is  probable  I  shall 
have  a  chance  of  seeing  you.  When  I  do  return,  it  is  my 
present  intention  to  settle  at  Annapolis,  unless  I  go  to  the 
federal  city.  No  certainty  yet  of  peace — but  I  continue  to 
prophesy  (notwithstanding  the  Emperor  of  Russia's  troops) 
that  a  continental  peace  will  soon  take  place.  The  affair  be 
tween  this  country  and  Denmark  will  probable  be  settled  by 
Denmark's  yielding  the  point.  I  have  no  opinion  of  the 
armed  neutrality  so  much  talked  of.  It  could  do  nothing 
now,  if  it  were  formed — but  I  doubt  the  fact  of  its  forma 
tion." 


MR.     PINKNEY    TO    HIS   BROTHER   NINIAN. 

"  LONDON,  July  21s/,  1801. 

"  DEAR  N. : — Report  has  certainly  taken  great  liberties 
with   my  letter  to  Mr.  Thompson.     Undoubtedly  I   have 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  39 

never  written  to  any  person  sentiments  that  go  the  length 
you  state.  When  the  contest  for  President  was  reduced  to 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Burr,  my  judgment  was  fixed  that 
the  former  ought  to  be  preferred — and  I  went  so  far  as  to 
think  that  his  superiority  in  every  particular  that  gives  a 
title  to  respect  and  confidence,  was  so  plain  and  decided  as 
to  leave  no  room  for  an  impartial  and  unprejudiced  man  to 
hesitate  in  giving  him  his  voice.  Of  course,  it  is  probable 
that  in  reference  to  the  result  of  this  competition,  when  it  was 
known,  I  have  expressed  myself  in  some  of  my  letters  to  my 
friends  as  highly  pleased,  and  that  before  it  was  known,  I  ex 
pressed  my  wishes  that  the  event  might  be  such  as  it  has 
been.  It  is  highly  probable  too  that,  even  before  the  con 
test  was  brought  to  this  alternative,  I  have  said  that,  what 
ever  may  have  been  my  wishes,  I  felt  no  alarms  at  the  idea 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  success.  I  do  not  remember  that  I  have 
said  thus  much,  but  I  believe  it  to  be  likely,  because  it  would 
have  been  true. 

"  I  have  at  all  times  thought  highly  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
have  never  been  backward  to  say  so.  I  have  never  seen,  or 
fancied  I  saw,  in  the  perspective  of  his  administration  the 
calamities  and  disasters,  the  anticipation  of  which  has  filled 
so  many  with  terror  and  dismay. 

"  I  thought  it  certain  that  a  change  of  men  would  follow 
his  elevation  to  power — but  I  did  not  forbode  from  it  any 
such  change  of  measures  as  would  put  in  hazard  the  public 
happiness.  I  believed,  and  do  still  believe  him  to  be  too 
wise  not  to  comprehend,  and  too  honest  not  to  pursue,  the 
substantial  interests  of  the  United  States,  which  it  is  in  fact 
almost  impossible  to  mistake,  and  which  he  has  every  possible 
motive  to  secure  and  promote.  I  did  not  credit  the  sugges 
tions  that  unworthy  prejudices  against  one  nation,  or  childish 
predilection  for  another,  would  cause  him  to  commit  the 
growing  prosperity  of  his  country  to  the  chances  of  a  war, 
by  which  much  might  be  lost,  but  nothing  could  be  gained, 


40  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

except  the  fruits  of  petty  hostility  and  base  pillage  on  the 
ocean.  I  did  not  credit,  and  often  did  not  understand,  the 
vague  assertions  that  he  was  a  disorganizer — an  enemy  to  all 
efficient  government — a  democrat — an  infidel,  &c.  &c. 

"  In  the  past  conduct  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  so  far  as  it  had 
come  to  my  knowledge,  I  discovered  no  just  foundation  for 
these  assertions — and  I  am  not  to  be  influenced  by  mere 
clamor,  from  whatsoever  quarter  it  may  come.  In  short,  I 
never  could  persuade  myself  to  tremble  lest  the  United 
States  should  find  in  the  presidency  of  Mr.  Jefferson  the 
evils  which  might  be  expected  to  flow  from  a  weak  or  a  wicked 
government.  I  am,  on  the  contrary,  satisfied  that  he  has 
talents,  knowledge,  integrity,  and  stake  in  the  country  suffi 
cient  to  give  us  well-founded  confidence,  that  our  affairs  will 
be  well  administered  so  far  as  shall  depend  on  him  ;  although 
he  may  not  always  perhaps  make  use  of  exactly  the  same 
means  and  agents  that  our  partialities  or  peculiar  opinions 
might  induce  us  to  wish. 

"  I  hope  you  are  deceived  as  to  the  possible  consequences 
of  the  ensuing  State  elections.  What  has  Mr.  Jefferson's 
being  President  of  the  United  States  to  do  with  your  Gen 
eral  Court,  Chancery,  &c.?  Without  tracing  the  peril  in 
which  these  establishments  manifestly  are,  to  the  ascendency 
of  this  or  that  political  party  in  the  nation  at  large,  it  may 
be  found  in  the  local  interests  of  the  different  counties  at  any 
distance  from  the  seat  of  justice — in  the  interests  of  the 
attorneys  who  swarm  in  every  part  of  the  State,  and  in  the 
House  of  Delegates — in  the  plausible  and  popular  nature  of 
the  theory  that  justice  should  be  brought  home  to  men's 
doors,  and  that  it  should  be  cheap,  easy,  and  expeditious — in 
the  love  of  change  which  half  the  world  believe  to  be  synon 
ymous  with  improvement — in  the  disgust  of  parties  who  have 
lost  their  cause  and  their  money  at  Annapolis  or  Easton,  and 
who  imagine  they  would  have  done  better  in  the  county 
court — and  in  a  thousand  other  causes  that  a  long  speech 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  41 

only  could  enumerate.  Five  years  ago  your  House  of  Dele 
gates  voted  trie  abolition  of  the  General  Court,  and  yet 
Maryland  was  at  that  time  in  high  reputation  as  a  federal 
State.  The  Senate,  it  is  true,  rejected  the  bill ;  not,  howev 
er,  because  they  were  more  federal  than  the  House  of  Dele 
gates,  but  simply  because  they  had  good  sense  enough  to 
perceive  that  the  bill  was  a  very  foolish  affair ;  and  I  have 
confidence  that  your  next  Senate,  whether  Mr.  Jefferson's 
partisans  or  opposers,  will  manifest  the  same  soundness  of 
mind  and  firmness  of  conduct.  I  profess  I  am  a  good  deal 
surprised  that  you  at  Annapolis,  who  are  interested  locally, 
as  well  as  generally,  in  preserving  the  General  Court,  &c., 
should  be  so  imprudent  as  to  cause  it  to  be  understood  that 
you  consider  the  whole  of  a  great  and  triumphant  party  in 
the  State  as  hostile  upon  principle  to  these  establishments. 
For  my  part  I  would  hold  the  opposite  language,  and  would 
industriously  circulate  my  unalterable  conviction  that  this 
was  no  party  question,  but  such  a  one  as  every  honest  man, 
a  friend  to  the  prosperity  of  Maryland,  and  to  the  purity  of 
justice,  cannot  fail  to  oppose.  By  making  a  party  question 
of  it,  you  are  in  greater  danger  of  a  defeat  than  you  other 
wise  would  be,  because  you  may  give  party  men  inducements 
to  vote  for  it  who  in  a  different  and  more  correct  view  of  the 
subject  might  vote  the  other  way.  You  are  on  the  spot, 
however,  and  must  have  better  means  of  judging  on  this 
head  than  I  have.  No  man  would  lament  more  sincerely 
than  I  should  do,  the  destruction  of  what  I  consider  the  fair 
est  ornaments  of  our  judicial  system.  If  I  was  among  you, 
I  would  spare  no  honest  effort  to  stem  the  torrent  of  innova 
tion,  which  has  long  been  threatening  the  superior  courts, 
and  will  finally  overthrow  them.  But  I  should  not  believe 
that  I  was  promoting  my  object  by  putting  in  array  against 
me,  and  insisting  on  considering  and  treating  as  adversaries, 
a  numerous  and  zealous  body  of  men  with  whom  I  happened 


42  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

to  differ  on  some  other  topic,  and  who  perhaps,  if  I  would  al 
low  them  to  take  their  own  stations,  would  be  found  on  my 
side." 

MR.    PINKNEY   TO   THE   SAME. 

"LOXDON,  July  21s#,  1803. 

"  DEAR  N. : — I  received  your  kind  letter  of  the  31st  of 
May  on  yesterday.  You  had  omitted  to  write  to  me  for  so 
great  a  length  of  time,  that  I  had  despaired  of  again  hearing 
from  you  during  my  stay  in  England.  Your  letter  has,  of 
course,  given  me  more  than  usual  pleasure. 

"  I  offer  you  my  congratulations  on  your  marriage,  which 
you  have  now  for  the  first  time  announced  to  me.  Mrs.  P. 
desires  me  also  to  offer  you  hers.  We  both  wish  you  all  the 
happiness  you  can  yourself  desire. 

"  It  is  now  certain  that  I  am  not  to  see  you  this  year. 
Our  commission  will,  however,  close  next  winter,  and  in  April 
or  May,  if  I  live  and  do  well,  I  shall  undoubtedly  be  with 
you.  In  the  mean  time,  such  insinuations  as  you  mention, 
let  them  come  from  what  quarter  they  will  (and  I  can  form 
no  conjecture  whence  they  come),  can  give  me  no  uneasiness. 
I  am  not  so  inordinately  fond  of  praise  as  to  be  disappointed 
or  provoked,  when  I  am  told  that  there  are  some  who  either 
do  or  affect  to  think  less  of  my  capacity  than  I  would  have 
them.  What  station  you  allude  to  I  am  wholly  unable  to 
judge,  but  I  know  that  I  have  never  solicited  any.  I  am  no 
office-hunter.  Without  professing  to  shun  public  employ 
ment  when  it  seeks  me,  I  can  truly  say  that  I  disdain  to 
seek  it.  My  reliance,  both  for  character  and  fortune,  is,  un 
der  Providence,  on  my  profession,  to  which  I  shall  imme 
diately  return,  and  in  the  practice  of  which  I  do  not  fear  to 
silence  those  insinuates.  What  I  am.  must  soon  be  seen 
and  known.  The  bar  is  not  a  place  to  acquire  or  preserve  a 
false  or  fraudulent  reputation  for  talents  ;  and  I  feel  what  is 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  43 

I  hope,  no  more  than  a  just  and  honorable  confidence,  in 
which  I  may  indulge  without  vanity,  that  on  that  theatre  I 
shall  be  able  to  make  my  depredators  acknowledge  that  they 
have  undervalued  me. 

"  I  shall  mingle  too  in  the  politics  of  my  country  on  my 
return  (I  mean  as  a  private  citizen  only)  ;  and  then  I  shall 
not  fail  to  give  the  world  an  opportunity  of  judging  both  of 
my  head  and  my  heart.  Enough  of  this. 

"  I  have  constantly  believed  that  America  has  nothing  to 
fear  from  the  men  now  at  the  head  of  our  affairs — and  in 
this  I  think  you  will  soon  agree  with  me,  notwithstanding 
the  interested  clamor  of  their  adversaries.  Time  will  show 
in  what  hands  the  public  power  in  America  can  be  most 
safety  deposited.  To  that  test  you  will  do  well  to  refer 
yourself.  In  the  mean  time  it  appears  to  be  a  rational  con 
fidence  that  no  party  can  long  abuse  that  power  with  impu 
nity/' 


MK.    PINKNEY    TO   MR.    COOKE. 


N,  August  8th,  1803. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  —  The  kindness  of  your  last  letter,  which 
I  received  about  a  week  ago,  and  which  I  shall  long  bear  in 
mind,  will  not  allow  me  to  forego  the  pleasure  of  writing  you 
once  more  (though  but  a  few  lines)  during  my  stay  in  Eng 
land.  I  say  once  more,  because  I  trust  that  early  in  the  spring 
I  shall  commence  my  voyage  for  America,  and  of  course 
shall  have  no  inducement  to  write  again.  I  was  entirely 
convinced  before  the  receipt  of  your  last,  that  your  letter 
of  December,  on  the  subject  of  the  Maryland  business,  was 
dictated,  as  you  say,  by  friendship  ;  and  I  not  only  felt  all 
the  value  of  the  motive,  but  thanked  you  sincerely  for  the 
communication  itself. 

"  I  had  not  heard  of  your  rejection  of  the  appointment  to 


44  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

the  Court  of  Appeals,  and  I  am  truly  sorry  that  you  have 
rejected  it.  Of  the  circumstances  attending  the  offer,,  or  the 
views  by  which  it  was  either  influenced  or  resisted,  I  know 
nothing ;  but  I  know  that  the  appointment  would  have  been 
the  best  that  could  have  been  made  ;  and  I  believe  that  the 
public  have  a  right  to  your  services,  now  that  it  is  no  longer 
necessary  that  you  should  labor  for  yourself.  I  have,  however, 
so  much  reliance  on  the  correctness  of  your  judgment,  that 
I  must  presume  you  have  done  right,  and  that  I  see  only 
half  the  subject. 

"  I  am  prepared  on  my  return  to  find  the  spirit  of  party 
as  high  and  frenzied  as  the  most  turbulent  would  have  it. 
I  am  even  prepared  to  find  a  brutality  in  that  spirit  which 
in  this  country  either  does  not  exist,  or  is  kept  down  by  the 
predominance  of  a  better  feeling.  I  lament  with  you  that 
this  is  so  ;  and  I  wonder  that  it  is  so — for  the  American  people 
are  generous,  and  liberal,  and  enlightened.  We  are  not,  I 
hope,  to  have  this  inordinate  zeal,  this  extravagant  fanaticism, 
entailed  upon  us — although  really  one  might  almost  suppose 
it  to  be  a  part  of  our  political  creed  that  internal  tranquillity, 
or  rather  the  absence  of  domestic  discord,  and  a  rancorous 
contention  for  power,  was  incompatible  with  the  health  of 
the  state,  and  the  liberty  of  the  citizen.  I  profess  to  be 
temperate  in  my  opinions,  and  shall  put  in  my  claim  to 
freedom  of  conscience  ;  but  when  both  sides  are  intolerant, 
what  hope  can  I  have  that  this  claim  will  be  respected  ?  At 
the  bar  I  must  contrive  as  well  as  I  can,  for  I  must  return 
to  it.  I  have  no  alternative  ;  and  if  I  had,  choice  would 
carry  me  back  to  the  profession.  I  do  not  desire  office,  al 
though  I  have  no  such  objections  to  the  present  adminis 
tration,  as,  on  what  are  called  party  principles,  would  induce 
me  to  decline  public  employment.  It  is  my  wish  to  be  a  mere 
professional  laborer — to  cultivate  my  friends  and  my  family, 
and  to  secure  an  honorable  independence  before  I  am  over 
taken  by  age  and  infirmity.  My  present  intention  is  to  fix 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  45 

in  Baltimore,  where  I  will  flatter  myself  I  shall  find  some 
who  will  not  regret  my  choice  of  residence.  I  had  under 
stood  with  unfeigned  concern  the  severe  loss  you  alude  to, 
and  knew  the  pain  it  would  occasion.  You  have,  however, 
the  best  of  consolations  in  those  whom  she  has  left  behind  ; 
and  it  is  my  earnest  wish  that  they  may  be  long  spared  to 
you,  and  you  to  them.  In  a  family  like  yours  every  loss 
must  be  deeply  felt  ;  for  none  can  be  taken  away  without 
diminishing  the  stock  of  worth  and  happiness  to  which  each 
is  so  well  calculated  to  contribute.  But  you  have  still  about 
you  enough  to  preserve  to  life  all  that  belongs  to  it  of  inter 
est  and  value,  to  which,  my  dear  sir,  you  can  add  that  which 
many  cannot,  the  perfect  consciousness  of  having  deserved  it. 
I  beg  you  to  remember  me  in  the  most  friendly  terms  to 
your  sons,  and  to  present  our  affectionate  compliments  to 
Mrs.  Cooke." 


ME.    PINKNEY   TO  THE   SAME. 

"  LONDON,  February  15th,  1804, 

"  MY  DEAR  SIB  : — Your  letter  of  the  2d  of  December, 
which  I  received  on  the  23d  of  last  month,  is  among  the 
most  pleasing  of  the  many  proofs  which  my  long  absence 
from  America  has  procured  me  of  your  valuable  friendship. 
It  is  not  in  my  power  to  manifest  by  words  the  sensibility 
which  such  kindness  excites  in  my  heart.  I  must  leave  it 
to  time  therefore  to  offer  me  other  means. 

"The  application  to  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  for  an  outfit,  was  the  joint  application  of  Mr.  Gore 
and  myself;  and  as  it  was  addressed  wholly  to  the  justice  of 
the  government,  and  asked  no  favor,  I  did  not  suppose  that 
it  would  be  proper  to  endeavor  to  interest  my  friends  gener 
ally  in  its  success.  It  seemed  to  me  that  this  would  have 
argued  a  distrust  either  of  the  claim  itself,  or  of  those  to 


46  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

whom  it  was  preferred  ;  and  as  I  really  had  the  most  perfect 
confidence  in  both,  I  was  not  disposed  to  act  as  if  I  had  none. 
Accordingly,  I  mentioned  the  subject  only  to  General  Smith, 
as  a  Senator  of  the  United  States,  requesting  of  him,  in  case 
the  President  should  lay  it  before  Congress,  such  explanations 
and  support  as  it  might  seem  to  him  to  require,  and  his  view 
of  it  (as  a  demand  of  right)  would  justify.  More  than  this, 
I  could  not  prevail  upon  myself  to  do,  although  I  began 
several  letters  to  different  persons  whose  good  offices  I  thought 
I  might  venture  to  ask.  General  Smith  has  answered  my 
letter,  and  otherwise  acted  on  this  occasion  in  a  way  to  de 
serve  my  particular  thanks.  I  have  no  doubt,  however,  that 
the  claim  has  been  rejected  ;  and  I  understand  that  I  arn 
not  likely  to  derive  much  consolation  for  this  rejection,  from 
the  manner  in  which  our  application  has  been  received  and 
treated.  It  would  not  be  proper  to  say  more  upon  a  trans 
action  of  which  I  have  at  present  such  scanty  knowledge, 
and  the  result  of  which  may  not  be  such  as  I  conjecture  it 
to  be. 

"  General  Smith  mentions  another  matter,  of  which  you 
also  take  notice — I  mean  the  desire  expressed  by  some  gen 
tlemen  of  Baltimore,  who  have  been  benefited  by  my  services 
in  England,  to  make  me  some  pecuniary  acknowledgment. 
My  answer,  written  in  a  hurry,  and  therefore,  perhapsj  not 
exactly  what  it  ought  to  be,  declines  this  proposal,  for  which, 
however,  I  cannot  but  be  sincerely  thankful  to  those  from 
whom  it  proceeds.  General  Smith  will  probably  show  you 
my  letter,  and  I  should  be  glad  that  you  would  even  ask  him 
to  do  so. 

"As  to  the  arrangement  of  a  loan,  it  is  liable,  in  sub 
stance,  to  all  the  objections  applicable  to  the  other,  and 
consequently  inadmissible.  I  must,  therefore,  do  as  well  as 
I  can  with  my  own  resources — and  I  have  the  satisfaction  to 
know  that  I  shall  leave  England  with  my  credit  untouched, 
and  in  no  tradesman's  debt.  If  it  will  distress  me  to  return 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  47 

to  Maryland,  with  my  large  family  (as  I  am  not  ashamed  to  con 
fess  it  will),  I  shall  at  least  have  to  sustain  me  under  it,  the 
consciousness  that  no  vice  has  contributed  to  produce  it — 
that  my  honor  has  no  stain  upon  it — and  that  although  it 
may  be  a  misfortune  to  become  poor  in  the  public  service,  it 
is  no  crime.  For  the  rest,  I  rely  upon  Providence  and  my 
own  efforts  in  my  profession. 

"  I  am  not  ashamed,  my  dear  sir,  that  almost  every 
word  of  this  letter  has  myself  for  its  subject ;  and  I  should 
be  yet  more  so,  if  I  did  not  recollect  that  it  is  to  you,  who 
have  encouraged  me  thus  to  play  the  egotist.  I  am  not 
likely,  however,  to  sin  in  this  respect,  at  least  for  some  time; 
as  I  hope  to  leave  this  country  in  March,  for  the  United 
States,  and  shall  of  course  be  under  no  temptation  to  write 
again,  even  to  you. 

"  The  affair  of  the  Maryland  stock  is  in  train,  and  I  have 
now  a  fair  prospect  of  settling  it  (as  I  hope  satisfactorily) 
after  much  anxiety,  vexation  and  difficulty.  A  week  or 
two  more  will,  I  trust,  conclude  it.  I  shall  not  make  any 
communication  on  this  subject  to  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  Maryland,  until  I  am  enabled  to  say 
that  the  stock  has  been  transferred.  Some  sacrifice  on  our 
part  has  been  found  indispensable — but  if  with  that  sacrifice 
the  residue  can  be  immediately  secured,  we  ought,  in  my 
opinion,  to  rejoice.  That  business  closed,  I  shall  only  wait 
for  a  vessel  sufficient  to  accommodate  my  family,  bound  to 
Baltimore.  None  has  yet  offered — and  I  begin  to  have  some 
fears  on  that  score.  I  must  have  patience." 

Mr.  Pinkney  was  absent  from  the  United  States  until 
August,  1804,  when  he  returned  once  more  to  the  spot  he 
most  loved  on  earth,  to  begin  again  at  the  age  of  forty  the 
struggles  of  the  forum.  He  returned  however  with  a  mind 
enriched  with  foreign  travel,  panting  to  gain  fresh  laurels, 
and  stimulated  by  the  master  minds  of  the  Law,  in  the  mo- 


48  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

ther  country,  in  contact  with  whom  he  had  been  brought  by 
the  business  of  his  mission.  He  led  a  very  active  life 
while  abroad.  He  observed  every  thing  worthy  of  note,  and 
studied  every  thing  he  saw.  ^His  society  was  much  sought 
by  distinguished  noblemen  and  commoners,  and  it  was  his 
happiness  to  form  some  warm  friendships,  which  relieved  the 
period  of  his  temporary  exile,  ""lie  continued  to  pursue  with 
unabated  ardor  and  energy  his  professional  studies,  and  kept 
up  his  habit  of  extempore  speaking  in  private.  Nothing 
was  permitted  to  entice  him  from  this  severe  mental  disci 
pline  and  labor.  With  the  eye  of  an  intelligent  and  discrim 
inating  critic  he  instituted  a  comparison  between  the  bar  of 
England  and  that  of  the  United  States  ; — and  the  compari 
son  was  far  from  being  prejudicial  to  the  rising  character  of 
his  countrymen.  Privileged  to  sit  within  the  bar  of  the 
English  parliament,  he  was  a  constant  frequenter  of  the  de 
bates  of  that  body;  and  was  therefore  qualified  to  form  and 
express  his  opinion.  He  made  the  most  of  his  circumstan 
ces,  and  appropriated  with  consummate  skill  all  the  benefits  of 
this  close  and  critical  analysis  of  the  legal  and  parliamentary 
mind  of  England. 

vBy  this  course  of  patient  application,  and  constant  prac 
tice  in  private  of  the  habit  of  speaking  (kept  up  and  per 
severed  in,  amid  the  brilliant  displays  of  a  Parliament  pre 
eminently  distinguished  for  oratorical  ability),  he  retained 
all  his  freshness  as  an  advocate,  and  entered  on  the  re 
newal  of  professional  conflict,  as  though  he  had  not  aban 
doned  for  a  moment  the  courts  of  justice.  Baltimore  was 
the  field  selected  for  the  re-commencement  of  his  labors.  He 
no  sooner  entered  upon  it  than  business  flowed  in,  and  he 
found  himself  occupied  with  a  practice  extremely  lucrative. 
He  took  his  stand  at  the  head  of  the  Maryland  Bar,  and 
won  honors  in  every  contest.  His  arguments  enlightened 
the  tribunals  he  addressed,  and  the  courts  acknowledged  his 
supremacy. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  49 

In  1805  he  was  appointed  Attorney-General  of  the  State. 
This  office  he  consented  to  hold  for  the  benefit  of  one  of  his 
early  and  most  revered  friends,  between  whom  and  himself 
there  existed  a  warm  personal  attachment.  I  allude  to  Mr. 
Johnson,  who  was  afterwards  the  Chancellor  of  Maryland,  a 
gentleman  of  uncommon  force  of  intellect  and  purity  of 
character — the  father  of  the  Hon.  Keverdy  Johnson  and 
John  Johnson,  the  former  one  of  the  very  first  lawyers  of 
the  Union,  who  as  Senator  and  Attorney-General  of  the 
United  States  displayed  a  statesmanlike  ability  and  profound 
legal  learning  which  have  won  for  him  a  most  enviable  dis 
tinction  ;  and  the  latter,  the  present  accomplished  and  able 
Chancellor  of  the  State. 

In  1806  he  was  again  sent  to  England  to  assist  Mr.  Mon 
roe  in  the  adjustment  of  our  difficult  and  delicate  negotia 
tions  with  that  august  and  mighty  nation.  This  appoint 
ment  he  received  from  President  Jefferson.  The  mode  in 
which  it  was  conferred  was  alike  honorable  to  each.  He  was 
chosen  for  his  peculiar  fitness  for  the  work,  and  solicited  to 
accept  the  trust  for  the  good  of  the  country.  In  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Jefferson  (now  given  to  the  public  for  the  first 
time),  in  his  own  beautiful  autograph,  from  which  I  copy, 
dated  August  5th,  1809,  I  find  the  following  explicit  lan 
guage  : 

"  I  am  happy  in  an  occasion  of  expressing  to  you  my 
great  esteem  for  you  personally,  and  the  satisfaction  with 
which  I  noted  the  correctness,  both  as  to  matter  and  manner, 
with  which  you  discharged  the  public  duties  you  were  so  kind 
as  to  undertake  at  my  request. 

"  I  witnessed  too,  with  pleasure,  the  esteem  with  which 
you  inspired  my  successor,  then  more  immediately  engaged 
in  correspondence  with  you.  Accept  the  just  tribute  of 
mine  also,  and  of  my  great  respect  and  consideration." 

It  is  refreshing  at  this  day  to  look  back  to  the  time 
when  a  public  trust  so  delicate  and  important  was  assumed, 
4 


50  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

as  a  kind  compliance  with  the  earnest  request  of  the  Presi 
dent,  with  whom  was  lodged  the  appointing  power.  Mr. 
Pinkney  had  been  abroad.  He  was  at  this  time  in  the  full 
flush  of  professional  success,  amassing  a  fortune  for  his  large 
and  helpless  family,  with  nothing  to  desire  but  health  and 
strength  to  reap  the  field  that  was  literally  groaning  beneath 
the  burden  of  the  harvest.  He  was  exactly  in  the  sphere  he 
most  coveted  to  fill,  when  the  eye  of  the  President  was 
turned  towards  him — a  President,  too,  whom  he  could  be 
scarcely  said  to  know  except  by  name  and  a  large  reputation. 
He  was  called  to  turn  aside  once  more  from  the  forum,  and 
the  scenes  he  most  loved  to  contemplate,  and  the  circle  of 
friends  in  which  he  most  delighted ;  and  embark  on  a  mis 
sion  that  promised  nothing  but  toil  and  self-sacrifice.  It  was 
the  call  of  the  country,  however,  and  his  patriot  heart  beat 
responsive  to  it.  A  kind  compliance  with  the  President's 
request  was  the  thing  asked  of  him,  and  the  boon  was  no 
sooner  asked  than  granted. 

The  manner  in  which  he  executed  this  trust,  or  after 
wards  filled  the  sole  responsibilities  of  Minister  Plenipoten 
tiary  to  the  court  of  St.  James,  will  be  discussed  in  another 
portion  of  this  memoir. 

It  may  be  refreshing  to  pause  a  moment  in  our  narrative, 
and  turn  to  the  correspondence  of  Mr.  Pinkney,  and  see 
what  was  the  state  of  his  mind,  his  views  and  feelings,  dur 
ing  this  his  second  embassage  to  England. 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   HIS   BROTHER   NLNIAN. 

"LONDON,  April  2Sth,  1808. 

"  DEAR  K  : — I  received  a  few  days  ago  your  very  short 
letter  on  a  very  large  sheet  of  paper.  I  expected  a  volume, 
and  was  obliged  to  put  up  with  half  a  dozen  lines.  This 
is  not  well.  After  all,  it  is  so  much  clear  gain  to  hear  from 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  51 

you ;  and,  giving  you  credit  for  good  intentions  and  a  good 
stock  of  affection,  I  thank  you  for  your  letter,  which  furnish 
es  much  evidence  of  both.  I  should  have  been  gratified 
undoubtedly  by  a  little  intelligence  about  Annapolis,  the 
health  of  friends,  and  so  forth ;  but  you  will  give  me  all 
these  in  your  next  letter  ;  and  so  we  will  settle  the  account. 

"I  congratulate  you  on  the  growth  of  your  daughter. 
She  is,  I  doubt  not,  worthy  of  all  your  care,  and  will,  I  sin 
cerely  hope  and  trust,  give  you  many  a  delightful  hour,  em 
ployed  in  watching  her  improvement,  and  cultivating  and 
forming  her  mind  and  manners  :  the  purest,  the  most  com 
pletely  unmixed  of  all  our  enjoyments ;  for  even  its  anxieties 
are  happiness  ! 

"  How  does  it  happen  that  Jonathan  has  not  written  to 
me  ?  It  is  odd  enough  that  I,  who  seem  to  have  a  host  of 
friends,  as  kind  as  heart  could  wish,  when  I  am  in  Maryland, 
appear  to  have  none  the  moment  I  leave  it.  This  is  poor 
encouragement  to  travel.  I  think,  if  ever  I  live  to  get  back 
to  the  fontes  et  flumina  natce,  this  consideration  will  induce 
me  to  make  a  vow  to  quit  them  no  more  on  any  errand 
whatever.  Even  you  recollect  me  only  when  some  striking 
event  forces  me,  as  it  were,  upon  you ;  and  Jonathan  of 
course  forgets  me,  because  I  keep  no  cash  at  the  Farmers' 
Bank.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  remember  me  to  him  in 
the  most  affectionate  manner.  Tell  him  I  think  of  him  of 
ten.  Hoiv  I  think  of  him  he  need  not  be  told. 

"  I  have  been  more  frequently  indisposed  within  the  last 
six  months,  than  has  been  usual  with  me.  I  am,  indeed, 
just  recovered  from  an  attack.  Too  much  employment  and 
some  inquietude  may  have  laid  me  open  to  these  indisposi 
tions.  The  climate  does  not  suit  me  as  well  as  it  did.  I 
hope  to  do  better  in  future ;  but  these  warnings  are  not  to 
be  slighted. 

"  You  have  not  mentioned  the  Governor  in  any  of  your 
letters.  You  must  like  him,  I  am  sure ;  for  he  is  of  a  lib- 


52  LIFE   OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

eral,  generous  temper.  I  do  not  meet  with  your  newspapers 
as  often  as  I  could  wish  ;  but,  from  those  I  have  seen,  the 
Governor's  conduct  appears  to  have  been  active,  spirited,  and 
judicious  on  every  occasion  that  has  occurred  since  his  first 
appointment.  It  was  to  have  been  confidently  expected 
that  it  should  be  so.  His  principles  have  always  been  those 
of  ardent  patriotism  ;  and  his  mind,  naturally  strong  and 
vigorous,  has  been  enlightened  by  great  experience.  In  my 
letter  to  him  by  Mr.  Hose  (which,  as  Mr.  Eose  did  not  go 
to  Annapolis  as  he  expected,  was  not  perhaps  delivered).  I 
asked  to  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing  from  him  when  he 
should  have  a  leisure  hour  winch  he  could  not  otherwise  em 
ploy.  Will  you  take  an  opportunity  of  intimating  this  to 
him?  Kemind  Mr.  H.  and  Mr.  D.  of  me.  Tell  them 
that  they  neglect  me ;  but  that  I  remember  them  with  as 
much  cordial  esteem  as  ever.  Where  is  my  friend,  Mr.  E.  ? 
If  you  should  see  him,  say  to  him  for  me  a  thousand  kind 
things.  Inform  Mr.  M.  that  I  wrote  to  him  last  autumn  ; 
but  fear  my  letter  miscarried.  As  to  Mr.  C.,  he  has  given 
me  up  entirely.  There  are  many  other  friends  of  whom  I 
could  speak ;  but  I  have  not  time.  There  is  one,  however, 
of  whom  I  will  find  time  to  speak  ;  and  to  her  I  beg  you  to 
say  that  she  shares  in  all  the  regard  I  feel  for  you." 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   THE  SAME. 

"LoxDox,  August  29th,  1808. 

"  DEAR  N.  :  —  I  have  had  the  pleasure  to  receive  your 
letter  of  the  16th  of  July,  and  am  happy  to  see  that  you  do 
not  forget  me. 

"  I  should  reluctantly  quarrel  with  your  domestic  felicity  ; 
but  I  might  perhaps  be  in  danger  of  doing  so,  if  it  appeared 
to  engross  you  so  entirely  as  to  leave  no  leisure  for  a  recollec 
tion  now  and  then  of  us  who  are  absent. 


.,  ~ 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  53 

"The  letter  of  which  you  speak  (inclosing  one  from 
Mrs.  P.)  came  safe  to  hand  ;  and  if  it  had  not,  I  should 
have  invented  half  a  dozen  apologies  for  you.  I  know  you 
so  well,  that,  when  you  appear  to  neglect  me,  I  am  ready  to 
throw  the  blame  upon  fortune,  upon  accident  (who  are,  I 
suspect,  the  same  personages),  upon  every  thing,  and  every 
body,  rather  than  upon  you. 

"  My  health  lias  been  rather  worse  than  I  wished  it ;  but 
I  am  now  convalescent.  A  short  absence  from  town  (my 
family  are  still  out  of  town),  sea-air  and  sea-bathing,  have 
put  me  up  again. 

"  Such  a  result  of  my  labors  for  the  public  as  you  would 
flatter  me  with,  would  make  me,  I  doubt  not,  the  healthiest 
man  in  England.  There  is  a  sort  of  moral  health,  however, 
which  crosses,  and  difficulties,  and  disappointments,  tend 
very  much  to  promote.  I  must  endeavor  to  console  myself 
with  the  opinion  that  I  have  laid  in  a  good  stock  of  that 
while  I  was  losing  some  of  the  other. 

"  After  all  this  philosophizing,  I  am  half  inclined  to  envy 
you  the '  smooth,  even  tenor  of  your  life.  You  are  every 
way  happy — at  home — abroad.  Nothing  disturbs  your  tran 
quillity  farther  than  to  show  you  the  value  of  it. 

"  Beloved  by  your  family — respected  and  esteemed  every 
where — your  official  capacity  acknowledged — your  official 
exertions  successful — what  have  you  to  desire  ?  But  I  have 
been  so  tossed  about  in  the  world,  that,  although  I  am  as 
happy  at  home  as  my  neighbors,  I  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
had  a  fair  and  decent  share  of  real  quiet.  The  time  may 
come,  however,  when  I  too  shall  be  tranquil,  and  when,  freed 
from  a  host  of  importunate  cares,  that  now  keep  me  com 
pany  whether  I  will  or  not,  I  may  look  back  upon  the  way 
I  have  travelled  with  a  heart  at  ease,  and  forward  with  a 
Christian's  hope.  I  suspect  I  am  growing  serious  when  I 
meant  to  be  directly  the  reverse.  Thus,  indeed,  it  is  with 
the  great  mass  of  our  purposes. 


54  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

"  I  am  rejoiced  that  Annapolis  holds  up  its  head.  In 
itself  the  most  beautiful,  to  me  the  most  interesting  spot 
on  earth,  I  would  fain  believe  that  it  is  doomed  to  enjoy  the 
honors  of  old  age  without  its  decrepitude.  There  is  not  a 
foot  of  ground  in  its  neighborhood  which  my  memory  has 
not  consecrated,  and  which  does  not  produce,  as  fancy  traces 
it,  a  thousand  retrospections  that  go  directly  to  the  heart. 
It  was  the  scene  of  our  youthful  days.  What  more  can  be 
said  ?  I  would  have  it  to  be  also  the  scene  of  my  declining 
years. 

"  Tell  Jonathan  that  I  would  write  to  him  if  I  could — 
but  that  I  have  scarcely  leisure  for  this  scrawl.  He  knows 
my  affections,  and  will  take  the  'will  for  the  deed/  I  offer 
him,  through  you,  my  felicitations  upon  the  stability  and 
wholesome  effects  of  the  Farmers'  Bank.  Ask  him  why  it 
is  that  I  do  not  hear  from  him  ?  All  days  are  not  discount 
days,  and  a  man  may  be  cashier  of  the  Bank  of  England, 
and  yet  have  a  moment  to  spare  to  those  who  love  him.  I 
beg  you  to  remember  me  to  the  Governor,  and  to  Dr.  J.,  and 
to  other  friends." 


ME.  PINKNEY   TO    MKS.  NINIAN    PINKNEY. 

"  LONDON,  JuneZkth,  1809. 

"  MY  DEAR  MADAM  : — If  I  had  not  found  it  impossible 
to  answer  your  letter  by  the  return  of  the  Pacific,  it  would 
have  been  answered.  Business  occupied  my  time,  and 
anxiety  my  heart,  to  the  last  moment.  I  would  have 
cheated  the  last  of  these  tyrants  of  an  hour  or  two  by  con 
versing  with  you ;  but  the  first  forbade  it,  and  I  had  no 
choice  but  to  submit.  From  this  double  despotism  I  am 
now  comparatively  free,  and  the  use  which  I  make  of  my 
liberty  is  to  trespass  on  you  with  a  few  lines. 

I  shall  not  condole  with  you  on  your  loss,  though  I  am 
able  to  conjecture  how  keenly  it  has  been  felt ;  you  have 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  55 

yourself  suggested  one  of  the  consolations  which  best  support 
the  good  under  the  heaviest  of  all  human  calamities  :  We 
shall  meet  again  in  purity  and  joy  the  friends  who  are  every 
day  falling  around  us.  There  is  nothing  which  more  effec 
tually  cheers  the  soul  in  its  dark  mortal  pilgrimage  than 
this  noble  confidence  ;  life  would,  indeed,  be  a  sad  journey 
without  it ;  the  power  of  death  is,  in  this  view,  nothing  ;  it 
separates  us  for  a  season  merely  to  fit  us  for  a  more  exalted 
and  holy  communion.  I  have  clung  to  this  thought  ever 
since  I  was  capable  of  thinking,  and  I  would  not  part  with 
it  for  worlds  ;  it  has  assisted  me  in  many  a  trial  to  bear  up 
against  the  evil  of  the  hour,  and  to  shake  off  in  some  degree 
(for  who  can  boast  of  having  entirely  escaped  from)  the  in 
fluence  of  those  passions  that  betray  and  degrade  us.  If 
I  may  dare  to  say  so,  it  gives  a  new  value  to  immortality, 
while  it  furnishes  powerful  incentives  to  virtue.  You  can 
not,  I  think,  have  yet  met  with  "  Morehead's  Discourses." 
One  of  his  sermons  turns  upon  the  loss  of  children  ;  and  he 
sets  forth,  with  that  eloquence  which  comes  warm  from  the 
heart,  the  softenings  which  this  bitter  affliction  derives  from 
religion.  When  you  can  get  the  sermon,  read  it ;  in  the 
mean  time,  the  following  short  extract  will  please  you.  It  is 
exquisitely  beautiful ;  and  the  best  of  our  modern  Eeviews 
has  quoted  it  as  a  soothing  and  original  suggestion  : 

"  i  We  are  all  well  aware  of  the  influence  of  the  world.  We 
know  how  strongly  it  engages  our  thoughts,  and  debases  the 
springs  of  our  actions  :  we  all  know  how  important  it  is  to 
have  the  springs  of  our  minds  renewed,  and  the  rust  which 
gathers  over  them  cleared  away.  One  of  the  principal  ad 
vantages,  perhaps,  which  arises  from  the  possession  of 
children,  is,  that  in  their  society  the  simplicity  of  our  nature 
is  constantly  recalled  to  our  view  ;  and  that,  when  we  return 
from  the  cares  and  thoughts  of  the  world  into  our  domestic 
circle,  we  behold  beings  whose  happiness  springs  from  no 
false  estimates  of  worldly  good,  but  from  the  benevolent 


56  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNET. 

instincts  of  nature.  The  same  moral  advantage  is  often 
derived  in  a  greater  degree  from  the  memory  of  those  children 
who  have  left  us.  Their  simple  characters  dwell  upon  our 
minds  with  a  deeper  impression  ;  their  least  actions  return 
to  our  thoughts  with  more  force  than  if  we  had  it  still  in 
our  power  to  witness  them  ;  and  they  return  to  us  clothed 
in  that  saintly  garb  which  belongs  to  the  possessors  of  a 
higher  existence.  We  feel  that  there  is  now  a  link  connect 
ing  us  with  a  purer  and  a  better  scene  of  beings ;  that  a 
part  of  ourselves  has  gone  before  us  in  the  bosom  of  God  ; 
and  that  the  same  happy  creatures  which  here  on  earth 
showed  us  the  simple  sources  from  which  happiness  springs, 
now  hover  over  us,  and  scatter  from  their  wings  the  graces 
and  beatitudes  of  eternity/ 

"  Who  can  read  this  passage  without  feeling  his  heart  in 
unison  with  it?  It  cannot  be  read  without  inspiring  a 
pleasing  melancholy,  arid  lifting  the  mind  beyond  the  low 
contamination  of  this  probationary  state,  c  to  scenes  where 
love  and  bliss  immortal  reign/  '; 


ME.  PINKNET   TO   HIS   BKOTHER   NIOTAN. 

"  LONDON,  September  23(7,  1809. 

"  DEAR  N.  : — I  received,  a  few  days  ago,  your  letter  of 
the  26th  of  June.  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  the  intelligence 
given  in  a  part  of  it,  and  still  more  for  the  kindness  and 
affection  which  pervade  the  whole.  A  better  choice  of 
Governor  could  not,  I  should  think,  have  been  made.  It 
must  have  been  very  agreeable  to  you,  and  I  congratulate 
you  upon  it  accordingly.  I  have  not  yet  received  the  letter 
which  you  tell  me  I  am  to  expect  from  the  Governor  and 
Council.  I  shall  be  happy  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  fulfil 
their  wishes,  whatever  they  may  be.  William  is  most  for 
tunately  fixed,  and  I  have  the  utmost  confidence  that  he  will 
do  well.  If  he  does  otherwise  his  condemnation  will  be  great 


LIFE    OP   WILLIAM   PINKKEY.  57 

indeed.  The  children  who  are  with  me  have  shot  up  at  a 
prodigious  rate,  and  require  much  care  and  expense.  Charles, 
who  is  a  remarkably  promising  boy,  has  finished  his  prepar 
atory  course,  and  is  now  at  Eton.  Edward  will  be  placed, 
after  Christmas,  at  the  school  which  Charles  has  left.  The 
rest  will  continue  to  have  masters  at  home. 

"  My  anxiety  to  return  does  not  diminish.  On  the  con 
trary,  it  grows  upon  me,  and  I  find  it  necessary  to  wrestle 
with  it.  You  know  that  I  have  as  many  and  as  strong  in 
ducements  to  be  contented  here  as  any  American  could 
have  ;  but  England  is  not  Maryland ;  and  foreign  friends., 
however  great,  or  numerous,  or  kind,  cannot  interest  us  like 
those  of  our  native  land, — the  companions  of  our  early  days, 
the  witnesses  and  competitors  of  our  first  struggles  in  life, 
and  the  indulgent  partakers  of  our  sorrows  and  our  joys  !  I 
trust  that  I  have  as  little  disposition  as  any  man  to  repine 
at  my  lot,  and  I  know  that  I  endeavored  to  form  my  mind 
to  a  devout  and  reverential  submission  to  the  will  of  God. 
Yet  I  cannot  conceal  from  myself  that  every  day  adds  some 
thing  to  my  cares  and  nothing  to  my  happiness  ;  that  I  am 
growing  old  among  strangers  ;  and  that  my  heart,  naturally 
warm  and  open,  becomes  cold  by  discipline,  contracted  by 
duty,  and  sluggish  from  want  of  exercise.  These  may  be 
called  imaginary  ills  ;  but  there  is  another,  which  all  the 
world  will  admit  to  be  substantial — I  speak  to  you  in  confi 
dence — my  salary  is  found  by  experience  to  be  far  short  of 
the  actual  necessities  of  my  situation.  It  was  fixed  at  its 
present  rate  many  years  ago,  when  the  style  of  living  and 
the  prices  of  articles  would  not  bear  a  comparison  with  those 
of  the  present  time.  I  have  no  right  to  complain,  however ; 
and,  therefore,  I  write  this  for  your  own  perusal  merely." 


58  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON   TO   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

"MONTICELLO,  August  5th,  1809. 

"  DEAR  SIR. — The  bearer  hereof,  Mr.  Alexander  McEae, 
and  Major  John  Clarke,  proposing  to  go  to  Great  Britain  on 
their  private  concerns,  I  take  the  liberty  of  presenting  them 
to  your  notice  and  patronage.  Mr.  McEae,  a  lawyer  of  dis 
tinction,  has  been  a  member  of  the  council  of  state  of  Vir 
ginia  and  Lieutenant-Grovernor,  highly  esteemed  for  his 
talents  and  correctness  of  principle,  moral  and  political. 
Major  Clarke  was  long  also  in  public  employ  as  director  of 
the  armory  of  this  State,  recommended  as  such  by  his  great 
mechanical  ingenuity  and  personal  worth.  Any  good  offices 
you  may  be  so  kind  as  to  render  them  will  be  deservedly 
bestowed ;  and  their  knowledge  of  the  present  state  of  our 
affairs  may  enable  them  to  add  acceptably  to  your  informa 
tion. 

"  I  am  happy  in  an  occasion  of  expressing  to  you  my 
great  esteem  for  you  personally,  and  the  satisfaction  with 
which  I  noted  the  correctness,  both  as  to  matter  and  man 
ner,  with  which  you  discharged  the  public  duties  you  were 
so  kind  as  to  undertake  at  my  request. 

"  I  witnessed  too  with  pleasure  the  esteem  with  which 
you  inspired  my  successor,  then  more  immediately  engaged 
in  correspondence  with  you.  Accept  the  just  tribute  of 
mine  also,  and  of  my  great  respect  and  consideration." 


MR.  PINKNEY   TO   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

"  LONDON,  April  3Qtht  1810. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — It  was  only  a  few  days  ago  that  I  had  the 
honor  to  receive  your  letter  of  the  5th  of  August  last,  by 
Mr.  McEae.  I  need  not  say  that  I  shall  be  happy  to  show 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  59 

that  gentleman  every  attention,  and  to  do  him  every  service 
in  my  power. 

"  I  cannot  express  to  you  how  sensibly  I  feel  the  kind 
ness  of  the  last  paragraph  of  your  letter.  If  any  thing  could 
give  new  strength  to  the  affectionate  sentiments  which  bind 
me  to  you,  it  would  be  the  assurance  it  contains,  that  in 
your  retirement  you  look  back  with  approbation  on  my 
humble  endeavors  to  be  useful  to  our  country,  and  that  you 
honor  me  with  your  esteem.  I  lay  claim  to  no  other  merit 
than  that  of  disinterested  zeal  in  seconding  your  views  for 
the  public  honor  and  prosperity  ;  views  which  I  heartily 
approved,  and  which  every  day  demonstrates  the  wisdom. 

"  I  sincerely  hope  that  my  conduct  during  the  remainder 
of  my  mission  (which,  without  utter  ruin  to  my  private 
affairs,  can  scarcely  be  very  long)  will  not  deprive  me  of 
your  good  opinion.  I  am  quite  sure  that  it  will  not  shake 
your  confidence  in  the  rectitude  of  my  intentions. 

"  When  I  return  to  the  private  situation  in  which  you 
were  so  good  as  to  distinguish  me,  it  will  be  in  my  power  to 
show  as  I  wish  the  veneration  in  which  I  hold  your  character, 
and  the  impression  which  your  friendly  conduct  towards  me 
has  made  upon  my  heart." 

Amid  the  exciting  and  agitating  discussions  that  were 
going  on  in  England,  and  the  often  clouded  sky  of  our  polit 
ical  horizon,  it  is  delightful  to  trace  the  workings  of  private 
friendship,  and  recall  the  sentiments  of  respect  with  which 
our  Minister  inspired  those  with  whom  he  was  brought  in 
contact.  The  alienation  of  countries,  so  closely  allied  to 
each  other  in  all  that  can  cement  and  bind  them  together, 
is  exceedingly  painful.  The  aggravating  perseverance  in  an 
odious  and  oppressive  policy  (sanctioned  by  no  principle  of 
the  great  international  law,  on  the  part  of  successive  admin 
istrations  of  public  affairs  in  England),  which  ultimately 
terminated  in  a  disastrous  war,  is  a  subject  of  reflection  not 


60  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

less  painful  in  the  retrospect.  But  there  are  evidences  of  a 
kindliness  of  feeling,  a  generosity  and  magnanimity,  which 
set  forth  the  personal  character  of  those  most  intimately 
connected  with  such  grave  discussions  in  beautiful  and 
striking  contrast,  and  prove  that  while  each  was  true  to 
their  national  claims,  they  knew  how  to  admire  and  appre 
ciate  what  was  personally  winning  and  attractive  in  the 
other.  The  following  letters  from  Wilberforce,  the  pure- 
hearted  and  eloquent  champion  of  humanity,  and  Lord  Hol 
land,  the  consummate  statesman  and  refined  gentleman, 
though  in  themselves  but  mere  expressions  of  personal  re 
gard,  will  be  read  with  interest. 


FEOM  LORD  HOLLAND  TO  MR.   PINKNEY. 

LONDON,  June  1st,  1808. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — From  fear  that  you  might  have  thought 
what  I  said  to  you  about  your  boy  a  mere  matter  of  form,  I 
write  again  to  you  after  I  have  talked  it  over  with  Lady 
Holland,  to  say  that  if  we  are  to  encounter  the  misfortune  of 
a  war  with  America,  and  upon  leaving  this  country  you 
should  wish  your  son  to  pursue  his  education  here,  Lady 
Holland  and  myself  beg  to  assure  you,  that  without  the  least 
inconvenience  to  us,  we  can  take  care  of  him  during  the  holi 
days  ;  and  between  them  ascertain,  that  he  is  going  on  pro 
perly,  and  give  you  all  the  information  you  would  require 
upon  the  progress  of  his  studies,  state  of  his  health,  &c.  I 
only  entreat  you  to  adopt  this  plan,  if  otherwise  agreeable 
and  convenient,  without  scruple,  as  I  assure  you  we  should 
not  offer  it  if  we  did  not  feel  pleasure  in  the  prospect  of  its 
being  accepted. 

"  I  see  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  of  yesterday  the  state 
ment  you  gave  me  in  a  letter  signed  Veritas.  Where  it  comes 
from  I  know  not.  I  was  preparing  to  send  the  statement  to 
the  papers,  and  it  has  saved  me  the  trouble." 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  61 


FROM   WILBEREOECE   TO   MR.    PINKNEY. 

"March  13th,  1811. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : — It  has  been,  for  above  a  week  past, 
my  intention  to  do  myself  the  honor  of  calling  on  you,  to 
take  my  chance  of  obtaining  a  conference  with  you  ;  but 
having  always  been,  and  still  being  prevented,  may  I  take  the 
liberty  of  begging  the  favor  of  you  to  appoint  a  day,  when 
between  11  and  1  (if  you  can  spare  me  a  few  moments  be 
tween  those  hours),  I  may  have  the  honor  of  a  little  conver 
sation  with  you.  Indeed,  if  you  should  stay  in  England 
longer  than  I  fear  you  design,  I  would  hope  that  you  might 
indulge  me  with  your  company  at  dinner  ;  but  I  am  anxious 
to  secure  a  little  intercourse  with  you.  I  cannot  lay  down 
my  pen  without  expressing  (and  with  no  unmeaning  words) 
my  deep  concern  on  the  event  of  your  quitting  this  country; 
fearing  that  it  has  at  least  a  face  of  declining  friendship  be 
tween  our  two  countries,  which  it  is  one  of  the  fondest  desires 
of  niy  heart,  as  it  is  recommended  by  the  clearest  judgment 
of  my  understanding,  that  they  should  be  united  in  the  bonds 
of  close  and  indissoluble  attachment." 

Mr.  Pinkney  returned  to  the  United  States  in  the  month 
of  June,  1811.  He  was  not  suffered  to  continue  long  in  re 
tirement  ;  for  in  the  September  following  he  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Senate  of  Maryland.  This  position  he  oc 
cupied  but  a  few  months,  for  in  December  he  was  appointed, 
by  President  Madison,  Attorney-General  of  the  United 
States.  This  was  an  office  eminently  congenial  to  his  tastes 
and  feelings.  It  gave  a  splendid  scope  to  the  peculiar  powers 
of  his  mind,  and  opened  up  a  field  of  usefulness  and  of  fame 
most  tempting  to  behold,  and  profitable  to  cultivate  and  till. 
There  was  something  too  in  the  manner  in  which  it  was  con 
ferred,  that  was  exceedingly  gratifying.  He  had  just  returned 
from  England.  His  whole  public  career,  while  at  the  court 


62  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

of  St.  James,  had  passed  under  the  immediate  review  of  Mr. 
Madison  ;  and  it  was  a  noble  tribute  to  his  worth,  to  be  se 
lected  almost  immediately  on  his  return  to  fill  so  important 
and  dignified  a  position,  in  a  relationship  so  near  to  that 
wise  and  great  statesman.  The  manner  in  which  his  new 
duties  were  discharged  is  best  illustrated  by  the  might  and 
majesty  of  his  arguments  before  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the 
cogency  and  convincing  power  of  his  written  legal  opinions. 
The  passage  of  a  law,  which  made  it  necessary  for  the  Attor 
ney-General  to  reside  at  the  seat  of  government,  com 
pelled  him  to  resign  the  post  within  the  short  period  of  two 
years.  His  practice  was  too  lucrative  to  admit  of  so  great  a 
sacrifice,  and  Madison  was  left  to  mourn  his  loss  to  the  public 
councils  of  the  nation.  This  necessity  was  just  cause  for  re 
gret.  Mr.  Pinkney's  great  industry,  methodical  mode  of 
doing  business,  and  high  professional  ambition,  would  have 
been  productive  of  most  admirable  results  to  the  public  ser 
vice  ;  while  his  profound  acquaintance  with  the  constitution 
and  deep  legal  learning  and  skill  in  diplomacy,  would  have 
made  him  an  invaluable  aid  to  the  administration,  and  an 
astute  defender  of  the  rights  of  the  government. 

During  the  war  he  was  as  ready  to  serve  the  country  in 
the  field,  as  he  had  been  to  uphold  her  dignity  and  maintain 
her  honor  in  discussion  with  English  diplomatists.  He  as 
sumed  the  command  of  a  company,  and  in  the  disastrous  en 
gagement  at  Bladensburg  (where  in  the  judgment  of  im 
partial  history  our  arms  will  be  found  to  have  deserved  a 
better  fate),  he  was  severely  wounded.  The  effects  of  that 
wound  he  carried  with  him  to  the  grave. 

He  wielded  his  pen  with  signal  success  in  the  defence  of 
the  war,  and  in  a  pamphlet  over  the  signature  of  Publius, 
addressed  to  the  people  of  Maryland,  he  thus  expressed  him 
self. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  63 


EXTKACTS  FKOM  A  PAMPHLET  WKITTEN  BY  MB.  PINKNEY,  UN- 


"  But  it  is  impossible  that,  in  weighing  the  merits  of  a 
candidate  for  a  seat  in  the  General  Assembly,  you  should  be 
occupied  by  considerations  which  are  merely  local.  You  are 
bound  to  give  to  your  inquiries  a  wider  range.  You  neither 
can,  nor  ought,  to  shut  your  eyes  to  the  urgent  concerns  of 
the  whole  empire,  embarked  as  it  is  in  a  conflict  with  the 
determined  foe  of  every  nation  upon  earth  sufficiently  pros 
perous  to  be  envied.  Maryland  is  at  all  times  an  interesting 
and  conspicuous  member  of  the  Union  ;  but  her  relative  po 
sition  is  infinitely  more  important  now  than  in  ordinary 
seasons.  The  war  is  in  her  waters,  and  it  is  waged  there 
with  a  wantonness  of  brutality,  which  will  not  suffer  the 
energies  of  her  gallant  population  to  slumber,  or  the  watch 
fulness  of  her  appointed  guardians  to  be  intermitted.  The 
rights  for  which  the  nation  is  in  arms  are  of  high  import  to 
her  as  a  commercial  section  of  the  continent.  They  cannot 
be  surrendered  or  compromised  without  affecting  every  vein 
and  artery  of  her  system  ;  and  if  the  towering  honor  of  uni 
versal  America  should  be  made  to  bow  before  the  sword,  or 
should  be  betrayed  by  an  inglorious  peace,  where  will  the 
blow  be  felt  with  a  sensibility  more  exquisite  than  here  in 
Maryland ! 

"  It  is  perfectly  true  that  our  State  government  has  not 
the  prerogative  of  peace  and  war  ;  but  it  is  just  as  true,  that 
it  can  do  much  to  invigorate  or  enfeeble  the  national  arm  for 
attack  or  for  defence  ;  that  it  may  conspire  with  the  legisla 
tures  of  other  States  to  blast  the  best  hopes  of  peace,  by  em 
barrassing  or  resisting  the  efforts  by  which  alone  a  durable 
peace  can  be  achieved  ;  as  it  may  forward  pacific  negotiation 
by  contributing  to  teach  the  enemy  that  we  who,  when  our 


64  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

means  were  small,  and  our  numbers  few,  rose  as  one  man, 
and  maintained  ourselves  victorious  against  the  mere  theories 
of  England,  with  all  the  terrors  of  English  power  before  us, 
are  not  now  prepared  to  crouch  to  less  than  the  same  power, 
however  insolently  displayed,  and  to  receive  from  it  in  per 
petuity  an  infamous  yoke  of  pernicious  principles,  which  had 
already  galled  us  until  we  could  bear  it  no  longer. 

"That  the  war  with  England  is  irreproachably  just,  no 
man  can  doubt  who  exercises  his  understanding  upon  the 
question.  It  is  known  to  the  whole  world,  that  when  it  was 
declared,  the  British  Government  had  not  retracted  or  quali 
fied  any  one  of  those  maritime  claims  which  threatened  the 
ruin  of  American  commerce,  and  disparaged  American  sover 
eignty.  Every  constructive  blockade,  by  which  our  ordinary 
communication  with  European  or  other  marts  had  been  in 
tercepted,  was  either  perversely  maintained,  or  made  to  give 
place  only  to  a  wider  and  more  comprehensive  impediment. 
The  right  of  impressment,  in  its  most  odious  form,  continued 
to  be  vindicated  in  argument  and  enforced  in  practice.  The 
rule  of  the  war  of  1756,  against  which  the  voice  of  all  Ame 
rica  was  lifted  up  in  1805,  was  still  preserved,  and  had  only 
become  inactive  because  the  colonies  of  France  and  her  allies 
had  fallen  before  the  naval  power  of  England.  The  Orders 
in  Council  of  1807  and  1809,  which  in  their  motive,  principle, 
and  operation,  were  utterly  incompatible  with  our  existence 
as  a  commercial  people,  which  retaliated  with  tremendous 
effect  upon  a  friend  the  impotent  irregularities  of  an  enemy; 
which  established  upon  the  seas  a  despotic  dominion,  by 
which  power  and  right  were  confounded,  and  a  system  of 
monopoly  and  plunder  raised,  with  a  daring  contempt  of 
decency,  upon  the  wreck  of  neutral  prosperity,  and  public 
law  ;  which  even  attempted  to  exact  a  tribute,  under  the 
name  of  an  impost,  from  the  merchants  of  this  independent 
land,  for  permission  to  become  the  slaves  and  instruments  of 
that  abominable  system ;  had  been  adhered  to  (notwith- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  65 

standing  the  acknowledged  repeal  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan 
decrees  in  regard  to  the  United  States)  with  an  alarming  ap 
pearance  of  a  fixed  arid  permanent  attachment  to  those  very 
qualities  which  fitted  them  for  the  work  of  oppression,  and 
filled  us  with  dismay.  Satisfaction,  and  even  explanation, 
had  been  either  steadily  denied,  or  contemptuously  evaded. 
Our  complaints  had  been  reiterated  till  we  ourselves  blushed 
to  hear  them,  and  till  the  insolence  with  which  they  were 
received  recalled  us  to  some  sense  of  dignity.  History  does 
not  furnish  an  example  of  such  patience  under  such  an  ac 
cumulation  of  injuries  and  insults. 

"  The  Orders  in  Council  were  indeed  provisionally  revok 
ed  a  few  days  after  the  declaration  of  war  ;  in  such  a  man 
ner,  however,  as  to  assert  their  lawfulness,  and  to  make 
provision  for  their  revival,  whenever  the  British  Government 
should  think  fit  to  say  that  they  ought  to  be  revived.  The 
distresses  of  the  manufacturing  and  other  classes  of  British 
subjects  had,  at  last,  extorted  from  a  bigoted  and  reluctant 
cabinet  what  had  been  obstinately  refused  to  the  demands  of 
justice.  But  the  lingering  repeal,  inadequate  and  ungracious 
as  it  was,  came  too  late.  The  Rubicon  had  been  passed. 

"  f  Nothing  is  more  to  be  esteemed  than  peace '  (I  quote 
the  wisdom  of  Polybius),  ( when  it  leaves  us  in  possession  of 
our  honor  and  rights  ;  but  when  it  is  joined  with  loss  of  free 
dom,  or  with  infamy,  nothing  can  be  more  detestable  and 
fatal/  I  speak  with  just  confidence,  when  I  say,  that  no 
federalist  can  be  found  who  desires  with  more  sincerity  the 
return  of  peace  than  the  republican  government  by  which 
the  war  was  declared.  But  it  desires  such  a  peace  as  the 
companion  and  instructor  of  Scipio  has  praised — a  peace 
consistent  with  our  rights  and  honor,  and  not  the  deadly 
tranquillity  which  may  be  purchased  by  disgrace,  or  taken  in 
barter  for  the  dearest  and  most  essential  claims  of  our  trade 
and  sovereignty.  I  appeal  to  you  boldly :  Are  you  prepared 
to  purchase  a  mere  cessation  of  arms  by  unqualified  submis- 
5 


66  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

sion  to  the  pretensions  of  England  ?  Are  you  prepared  to 
sanction  them  by  treaty  and  entail  them  upon  your  posteri 
ty,  with  the  inglorious  and  timid  hope  of  escaping  the  wrath 
of  those  whom  your  fathers  discomfited  and  vanquished  ? 
Are  you  prepared,  for  the  sake  of  a  present  profit,  which  the 
circumstances  of  Europe  must  render  paltry  and  precarious, 
to  cripple  the  strong  wing  of  American  commerce  for  years  to 
come,  to  take  from  our  flag  its  national  effect  and  character, 
and  to  subject  our  vessels  on  the  high  seas,  and  the  brave  men 
who  navigate  them,  to  the  municipal  jurisdiction  of  Great 
Britain  ?  I  know  very  well  that  there  are  some  amongst  us  (I 
hope  they  are  few)  who  are  prepared  for  all  this,  and  more  ;  who 
pule  over  every  scratch  occasioned  by  the  war  as  if  it  were  an 
overwhelming  calamity,  and  are  only  sorry  that  it  is  not 
worse ;  who  would  skulk  out  of  a  contest  for  the  best  interests 
of  their  country  to  save  a  shilling  or  gain  a  cent ;  who,  having 
inherited  the  wealth  of  their  ancestors  without  their  spirit, 
would  receive  laws  from  London  with  as  much  facility  as 
woollens  from  Yorkshire,  or  hardware  from  Sheffield.  But  I 
write  to  the  great  body  of  the  people,  who  are  sound  and 
virtuous,  and  worthy  of  the  legacy  which  the  heroes  of  the 
Kevolution  have  bequeathed  them.  For  them,  I  undertake  to 
answer,  that  the  only  peace  which  they  can  be  made  to  en 
dure,  is  that  which  may  twine  itself  round  the  honor  of  the 
people,  and  with  its  healthy  and  abundant  foliage  give  shade 
and  shelter  to  the  prosperity  of  the  empire. 

"  I  passed  rapidly  in  a  former  number  over  the  justifying 
causes  of  the  war.  But  you  must  permit  me  in  this  place, 
and  for  a  single  instant,  to  recur  to  one  of  them,  as  introduc 
tory  to  a  consideration  which  you  will  do  well  to  lay  to  your 
hearts  when  you  are  assembled  at  the  polls.  The  founda 
tion  upon  which  the  claim  of  Great  Britain  reposes,  to  send 
a  pressgang  on  board  of  our  ships  upon  the  ocean,  as  if 
they  were  the  docks  or  the  alehouses  of  Liverpool,  is  simply 
the  right  of  the  crown,  as  it  is  recognized  by  her  laws,  to  the 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  67 

services  of  every  subject  in  time  of  war.  The  doctrine 
amounts  to  this,  that  a  man  born  within  the  British  do 
minions  is,  in  a  qualified  sense,  the  property  of  the  govern 
ment,  in  virtue  of  an  artificial  and  slavish  notion  of  perpet 
ual  allegiance  ;  that,  though  he  may  have  been  forced  by 
poverty  or  persecution  to  emigrate,  and  has  become  the  cit 
izen  or  subject  of  another  state,  his  allegiance  cleaves  to  him 
for  life ;  that  no  time,  or  distance,  or  sanctuary,  or  new 
obligations  can  save  him  from  its  mysterious  and  inextinguish 
able  power ;  and  that,  of  course,  he  may  be  seized  wherever 
and  whenever  he  can  be  found. 

"  But  the  abominable  doctrine  is  associated  with  another 
which  says,  that  although  no  state  can  be  suffered  to  hold 
British  seamen  in  its  service  by  naturalization  or  otherwise, 
Great  Britain  may  encourage  the  seamen  of  other  states  to 
enter  into  her  service,  and  may  keep  them  there  till  she  wants 
them  no  longer  !  And,  that  nothing  may  be  wanting  to  the 
consistency  of  the  British  doctrine  on  this  head,  it  goes  on  to 
maintain  that  if  a  foreign  seaman  should  happen  to  marry 
and  settle  (as  it  is  phrased)  in  an  English  port,  he  may  be 
impressed  as  an  English  sailor,  and  may  be  retained  as  such 
against  his  own  remonstrance,  seconded  by  that  of  his  country. 

"  In  the  execution  of  the  first  of  those  rules,  which  the 
associated  rules  so  pointedly  discountenance,  our  vessels  were 
stopped  on  their  lawful  voyages,  and  their  mariners  taken 
away  by  violence  upon  the  bare  allegation,  whether  true  or 
false,  that  they  were  British  subjects.  Many  of  these  per 
sons  were  native  Americans,  many  of  them  were  neutral 
Europeans  over  whom  Great  Britain  had  no  lawful  control, 
and  many  more  were  fairly  entitled  to  be  considered  as  Amer 
ican  seamen,  according  to  the  law  which  Great  Britain  had 
(as  I  have  already  stated)  laid  down  and  enforced  against  us 
and  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  was  impossible  that,  with  the 
best  disposition,  such  a  rule  should  be  made  to  act  only  on 
the  professed  objects  of  it.  But  it  was  often  exercised  with 


f>8  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

wanton  tyranny  by  proud  and  upstart  surrogates  in  naval 
uniform ;  and  the  abuses  grew  to  be  enormous  and  intolera 
ble.  The  approach  of  a  British  cruiser,  in  the  bosom  of 
peace,  struck  a  terror  in  our  seamen  which  it  cannot  noiv  in 
spire,  and  almost  every  vessel  returning  from  a  foreign  voy 
age,  brought  affliction  to  an  American  family,  by  reporting 
the  impressment  of  a  husband,  a  brother,  or  a  son.  The 
government  of  the  United  States,  by  whomsoever  adminis 
tered,  has  invariably  protested  against  this  monstrous  prac 
tice,  as  cruel  to  the  gallant  men  whom  it  oppressed,  as  it 
was  injurious  to  the  navigation,  the  commerce,  and  the  sov 
ereignty  of  the  Union.  Under  the  administration  of  Wash 
ington,  of  Adams,  of  Jefferson,  of  Madison,  it  was  reproba 
ted  and  resisted  as  a  grievance  which  could  not  be  borne  ; 
and  Mr.  King,  who  was  instructed  upon  it,  supposed  at  one 
time  that  the  British  Government  were  ready  to  abandon  it, 
by  a  convention  which  he  had  arranged  with  Lord  St.  Yin- 
cent,  but  which  finally  miscarried.  You  have  witnessed  the 
generous  anxiety  of  the  late  and  present  chief  magistrates  to 
put  an  end  to  a  usage  so  pestilent  and  debasing.  You  have 
seen  them  propose  to  a  succession  of  English  ministers,  as 
inducements  to  its  relinquishment,  expedients  and  equiva 
lents  of  infinitely  greater  value  to  England  than  the  usage, 
whilst  they  were  innocent  in  themselves  and  respectful  to  us. 
You  have  seen  these  temperate  overtures  haughtily  repelled, 
until  the  other  noxious  pretensions  of  Great  Britain,  grown 
in  the  interim  to  a  gigantic  size,  ranged  themselves  by  the 
side  of  this,  and  left  no  alternative  but  war  or  infamy.  We 
are  at  war  accordingly,  and  the  single  question  is,  whether 
you  will  fly  like  cowards  from  the  sacred  ground  which  the 
government  has  been  compelled  to  take,  or  whether  you  will 
prove  by  your  actions  that  you  are  descended  from  the  loins 
of  men  who  reared  the  edifice  of  American  liberty,  in  the 
midst  of  such  a  storm  as  you  have  never  felt. 

"  As  the  war  was  forced  upon  us  by  a  long  series  of  unex- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNET.  69 

mpled  aggressions,  it  would  be  absolute  madness  to  doubt 
that  peace  will  receive  a  cordial  welcome,  if  she  returns 
without  ignominy  in  her  train,  and  with  security  in  her  hand. 
The  destinies  of  America  are  commercial,  and  her  true  policy 
is  peace  ;  but  the  substance  of  peace  had,  long  before  we 
were  roused  to  a  tardy  resistance,  been  denied  to  us  by  the 
ministry  of  England ;  and  the  shadow  which  had  been  left 
to  mock  our  hopes  and  to  delude  our  imaginations,  resembled 
too  much  the  frowning  spectre  of  war  to  deceive  any  body. 
Every  sea  had  witnessed,  and  continued  to  witness,  the  sys 
tematic  persecution  of  our  trade  and  the  unrelenting  oppres 
sion  of  our  people.  The  ocean  had  ceased  to  be  the  safe 
highway  of  the  neutral  world ;  and  our  citizens  traversed  it 
with  all  the  fears  of  a  benighted  traveller,  who  trembles 
along  a  road  beset  with  banditti,  or  infested  by  the  beasts  of 
the  forest.  The  government,  thus  urged  and  goaded,  drew 
the  sword  with  a  visible  reluctance  ;  and,  true  to  the  pacific 
policy  which  kept  it  so  long  in  the  scabbard,  it  will  sheathe 
it  again  when  Great  Britain  shall  consult  her  own  interest, 
by  consenting  to  forbear  in  future  the  wrongs  of  the  past. 

"  The  disposition  of  the  government  upon  that  point  has 
been  decidedly  pronounced  by  facts  which  need  no  commen 
tary.  From  the  moment  when  war  was  declared,  peace  has 
been  sought  by  it  with  a  steady  and  unwearied  assiduity,  at 
the  same  time  that  every  practicable  preparation  has  been 
made,  and  every  nerve  exerted  to  prosecute  the  war  with 
vigor,  if  the  enemy  should  persist  in  his  injustice.  The  law 
respecting  seamen,  the  Eussian  mission,  the  instructions  sent 
to  our  Charge  d'affaires  in  London,  the  prompt  and  explicit 
disavowal  of  every  unreasonable  pretension  falsely  ascribed 
to  us,  and  the  solemn  declaration  of  the  government  in  the 
face  of  the  world,  that  it  wishes  for  nothing  more  than  a  fair 
and  honorable  accommodation,  would  be  conclusive  proofs 
of  this,  if  any  proofs  were  necessary.  But  it  does  not  require 
to  be  proved,  because  it  is  self-evident.  What  interest,  in 


70  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

the  name  of  common  sense,  can  the  government  have  (dis 
tinctly  from  that  of  the  whole  nation)  in  a  war  with  Great 
Britain  ?  It  is  obvious  to  the  meanest  capacity  that  such  a 
war  must  be  accompanied  by  privations,  of  which  no  govern 
ment  would  hazard  the  consequences,  but  upon  the  sugges 
tions  of  an  heroic  patriotism.  The  President  and  his  support 
ers  have  never  been  ignorant  that  those  who  suffer  by  a  war, 
however  unavoidable,  are  apt  rather  to  murmur  against  the 
government  than  against  the  enemy,  and  that  while  it  presses 
upon  us  we  sometimes  forget  the  compulsion  under  which  it 
was  commenced,  and  regret  that  it  was  not  avoided  with  a 
provident  foresight  of  its  evils. 

"  It  will,  therefore,  be  no  easy  matter  to  persuade  you 
that  this  war  was  courted  by  an  administration  who  depend 
upon  the  people  for  their  power,  and  are  proud  of  that  de 
pendence  ;  or  that  it  will  be  carried  on  with  a  childish  ob 
stinacy  when  it  can  be  terminated  with  honor  and  with  safety. 
You  have,  on  the  contrary,  a  thousand  pledges  that  the  gov 
ernment  was  averse  to  war,  and  will  give  you  peace  the  in 
stant  peace  is  in  its  power.  You  know,  moreover,  that  the 
enemy  will  not  grant  it  as  a  boon,  and  that  it  must  be 
wrung  from  his  necessities.  It  comes  to  this,  then  :  whom 
will  you  select  as  your  champions  to  extort  it  from  him?  upon 
whom  will  you  cast  the  charge  of  achieving  it  against  him 
in  the  lists?" 

In  1815  he  was  elected  a  Representative  in  Congress 
from  the  city  of  Baltimore. 

In  1816  he  was  appointed  by  President  Monroe,  Minis 
ter  Plenipotentiary  to  the  court  of  Russia  and  special  minis 
ter  to  that  of  Naples.  This  was  another  gratifying  tribute 
of  respect  and  confidence  from  one  who  best  knew  his  quali 
fications  as  a  statesman.  Of  his  conduct  in  those  missions 
I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  hereafter.  I  have  it  in  my 
power  to  lay  before  the  public  a  letter  written  to  Robert 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY  71 

Goodloe  Harper.  It  is  a  gem  of  its  kind,  a  living,  breathing 
picture,  full  of  beauty  and  exquisite  taste.  It  exhibits  a 
power  of  graphic  composition  not  easily  paralleled.  I  am 
sure  it  will  be  read  with  interest.  His  sketch  of  the  reign 
ing  empress  is  inimitable  ;  and  his  fine  appreciation  of  all 
that  is  truly  beautiful  and  fascinating  in  the  charm  of  woman 
shines  out  in  each  and  every  paragraph — and  what  is  most 
remarkable,  the  hues  of  the  portraiture  are  so  shaded  and 
blended,  that  while  they  seem  to  catch  their  coloring  from 
the  skies,  they  are  not  unreal.  It  goes  as  near  extravagance 
as  it  could,  to  be  just  and  faithful ;  and  never  oversteps  the 
bounds  of  probability  and  of  fact,  as  the  pen  of  history  has 
since  testified.  There  is  nothing  that  I  remember  so  beau 
tiful  in  the  English  language,  except  it  be  Wordsworth's 
touching  and  exquisite  picture  of  his  wife.  Mr.  Pinkney  was 
held  in  peculiar  estimation  by  the  reigning  Emperor  Alexan 
der,  who  opened  a  new  page  in  the  history  of  Russia,  and  re 
deemed  his  court  from  the  intrigues  arid  excesses  that  had 
well-nigh  disgraced  it  in  the  eye  of  the  world,  during  some 
of  the  preceding  reigns. 


MR.    PIXKNEY    TO    HOB.    GOODLOE    HARPER. 

"ST.   PETERSBURG,  August  Wth,  1817. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — Major  General  the  Baron  de  Tevyll,  who 
is  about  to  proceed  to  the  United  States  as  the  successor  of 
Mr.  Daschkoft,  wishes  me  to  make  him  acquainted  with 
some  of  my  friends  in  Baltimore  ;  and  you  will,  I  hope,  take 
it  in  good  part  that  I  introduce  to  you  the  worthy  minister 
of  such  a  monarch  as  Alexander. 

"  The  Baron  has  seen  a  good  deal  of  service  as  a  soldier, 
and  has  won  an  honorable  reputation.  By  birth  a  Dutch 
man,  he  was  originally  in  some  corps  in  the  pay  of  England, 
and  thence  passed  into  the  staff  and  line  of  Eussia.  He 
has,  however,  been  more  employed  as  a  diplomatist,  and  has 


72  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

recently  returned  from  a  mission  to  Rome  in  which  he  con 
ducted  himself  satisfactorily  and  ably.  In  this  department 
he  is  said  to  be  very  skilful.  But  what  I  think  of  yet  greater 
consequence  is,  that  he  is  an  excellent  man  and  an  accom 
plished  gentleman.  I  speak  in  part  from  my  own  observa 
tion  (for  I  have  seen  him  often  here),  and  partly  from  what 
I  learn  from  others  who  have  long  known  him.  He  carries 
with  him  a  great  regard  for  our  country,  in  unison  with  the 
sentiments  of  the  Emperor ;  and  this  feeling,  combined  with 
his  characteristic  good  sense  and  discretion,  will,  I  am  sure, 
make  him  an  acceptable  minister,  not  only  to  our  govern 
ment  but  to  our  people. 

"As  I  know  the  interest  which  you  take  in  whatever 
concerns  this  government,  you  will  not,  I  think,  be  displeased 
if,  now  that  I  have  begun  to  write,  I  give  you  a  very  brief 
sketch  (not  of  its  policy — for  with  that  you  are  well  ac 
quainted — but)  of  the  great  personages  who  are  at  the  head 
of  it,  I  mean  the  principal  members  of  the  Imperial  family, 
of  whom  little  is  known  in  America. 

"  The  Emperor  is  a  remarkably  handsome  man,  and  of 
an  admirable  address.  Every  body  justly  ascribes  to  him  the 
merit  of  good  intentions,  and,  with  equal  justice,  the  addi 
tional  merit  of  knowing  how  to  use  the  best  means  for  the  ful 
filment  of  those  intentions.  He  is  one  of  the  few  men  in  the 
world  who,  having  been  seen  at  a  distance  in  great  enterprises 
and  achievements,  gain  by  being  approached  and  closely  ex 
amined.  I  am  mistaken  in  him  if  he  is  not  a  man  of  great 
abilities.  He  appears  to  me  to  have  a  clear,  vigorous  and 
cultivated  mind — to  be  steady  and  sagacious  in  the  pursuit 
of  his  purposes — to  be  well  read  in  men  as  well  as  books — 
to  be  prompt  and  dexterous  in  the  management  of  affairs — to 
have  the  wholesome  habit  of  thinking  for  himself — to  be  of 
a  generous,  though  perhaps  somewhat  hasty  temper — and,  in 
a  word,  to  be  signally  fitted  for  his  high  vocation. 

"  The  Empress  Mother  is  still  a  most  charming  woman. 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  73 

and  when  young  must  have  been  extremely  handsome  ;  she 
may  be  said  to  do  the  honors  of  this  splendid  court,  and  it 
is  right  that  she  should.  Her  manners  are  infinitely  pleasing 
at  the  same  time  that  they  are  lofty ;  and  she  is  a  perfect 
mistress  of  the  arts  of  conversation.  She  is,  moreover,  ex 
emplary  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  and  is  beloved  for  her 
goodness  by  all  classes. 

"  Of  the  reigning  Empress  it  is  impossible  to  speak  in 
adequate  terms  of  praise.  It  is  necessary  to  see  her,  to  be 
able  to  comprehend  how  wonderfully  interesting  she  is.  It 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that,  with  a  slight  abatement  for 
the  effects  of  time  and  severe  affliction  (produced  by  the  loss 
of  her  children),  she  combines  every  charm  that  contributes 
to  female  loveliness,  with  all  the  qualities  that  peculiarly  be 
come  her  exalted  station.  Her  figure,  although  thin,  is  ex 
quisitely  fine.  Her  countenance  is  a  subduing  picture  of 
feeling  and  intelligence.  Her  voice  is  of  that  soft  and  happy 
tone  that  goes  directly  to  the  heart  and  awakens  every  senti 
ment  which  a  virtuous  woman  can  be  ambitious  to  excite. 
Her  manner  cannot  be  described  or  imagined.  It  is  so 
graceful,  so  unaffectedly  gentle,  so  winning  and  yet  so  digni 
fied,  that  (I  had  almost  said)  an  angel  might  copy  it  and  im 
prove  his  own.  Her  conversation  is  suited  to  this  noble  ex 
terior.  Adapted  with  a  nice  discrimination  to  those  to  whom 
it  is  addressed,  unostentatious  and  easy,  sensible  and  kind, 
it  captivates  invariably  the  wise  and  good,  and  (what  is  yet 
more  difficult)  satisfies  the  frivolous  without  the  slightest  ap 
proaches  to  frivolity.  If  universal  report  is  to  be  credited, 
there  is  no  virtue  for  which  this  incomparable  woman  is  not 
distinguished ;  and  I  have  reason  to  be  confident,  from  all 
that  I  have  observed  and  heard,  that  her  understanding 
(naturally  of  the  highest  order)  has  been  embellished  and 
improved  to  an  uncommon  degree  by  judicious  and  regular 
and  various  study.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  she  is 
alike  adored  by  the  inhabitant  of  the  palace  and  the  cottage, 


74  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

and  that  every  Kussian  looks  up  to  her  as  to  a  superior  being. 
She  is  indeed  a  superior  being ;  and  would  be  adored  although 
she  were  not  surrounded  by  Imperial  pomp  and  power.  It 
is  time,  however,  to  have  done  with  these  sketches,  and  to 
return  to  the  subject  of  this  letter,  into  which  I  did  not  in 
tend,  when  I  sat  down  to  write,  to  introduce  any  other 
subject. 

"  The  Baron  sets  out  from  St.  Petersburgh  in  a  few  days ; 
but  probably  will  not  arrive  in  the  United  States  until  next 
winter,  as  he  goes  by  the  route  of  Vienna,  Munich,  Holland, 
and  England." 

Mr.  Pinkney  returned  to  the  United  States  in  1818  at 
his  own  request,  and  it  is  remarkable,  that  while  he  never 
solicited  directly  or  indirectly  a  foreign  appointment,  he  was 
never  recalled  but  upon  his  own  expressed  wish  long  resisted 
and  reluctantly  entertained. 

He  lost  no  time  in  indolent  inactivity,  but  immediately 
resumed  the  practice  of  the  law  ;  and  soon  proved  that  he 
had  lost  nothing  during  his  absence  from  the  forum.  Mary 
land  was  too  proud  of  his  fame  to  allow  him  to  continue  in 
private  practice  at  the  bar.  She  had  honored  him  with  al 
most  every  post  of  distinction  in  her  gift,  and  she  now  gave 
him  the  finishing  proof  of  her  attachment  and  confidence  by 
electing  him  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  On  the 
4th  January,  1820,  he  took  his  seat.  The  country  was  in 
the  deepest  state  of  anxiety.  A  question  of  momentous  in 
terest  was  then  under  deliberation.  The  first  men  of  the 
land  were  participators  in  the  discussion.  On  the  15th 
February  he  delivered  his  immortal  speech  on  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  A  member  of  the  committee  of  conference 
on  the  part  of  the  Senate,  he  proposed  the  report  which  was 
subsequently  adopted  by  that  committee.  Little  more  than 
one  month  a  member  of  that  body,  he  delivered  a  speech  that 
electrified  the  country,  was  placed  upon  the  committee  that 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  75 

settled  the  difficulty  and  proposed  the  report  that  was  made. 
Such  pre-eminence  in  so  short  a  time  is  not  often  paralleled 
in  the  history  of  legislation. 

During  the  brief  period  of  his  Senatorial  career  he  was 
incessantly  occupied  in  the  conflicts  of  the  forum  ;  discussing 
questions  of  the  greatest  magnitude  with  competitors  from 
all  quarters  of  the  country,  who  were  rarely  if  ever  equalled, 
and  never  excelled  in  any  other  period  of  the  history  of  the 
American  Bar.  He  was  preparing  a  great  speech  on  the 
constitution  at  the  time  he  died ;  and  from  the  zest  with 
which  he  entered  on  its  preparation  and  the  interest  he  felt, 
it  may  be  affirmed,  that,  had  he  lived,  he  would  have  doubled 
his  claim  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  his  countrymen  and 
recalled  the  early  days  of  the  Republic  when  constitutional 
discussions  were  rich  in  wisdom  and  pre-eminently  patriotic  in 
purpose.  But  it  pleased  Divine  Providence  to  forbid  that 
the  topmost  stone  should  be  placed  by  his  own  hands  upon 
the  vast  pyramid  of  his  fame.  Death  palsied  the  tongue, 
ere  its  trumpet  tones  were  heard  in  that  discussion ;  and 
none  were  privileged  to  share  in  the  noble  thoughts  that 
were  flitting  through  his  brain  and  panting  for  utterance. 

I  now  draw  near  the  close  of  his  life.  It  will  be  seen 
that  from  the  early  age  of  24  to  the  day  of  his  death,  he 
was  constantly  occupied  in  the  public  service  at  home  or 
abroad,  a  service  he  neither  sought  nor  shunned ;  that  he 
contrived  all  the  while  to  pursue  with  unabated  zeal  his  pro 
fessional  studies,  and  retained  a  practice  at  the  bar  without  a 
parallel  in  the  history  of  the  past  or  the  present.  The  few 
last  years  of  his  life  were  marked  with  exertions  well-nigh 
incredible,  and  rewarded  with  an  income  that  it  would  be 
deemed  exaggeration  to  name.  His  intellectual  labors  ex 
ceeded  his  physical  strength.  In  the  very  pride  of  his  power, 
in  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  with  a  robust  constitution, 
upon  which  time  seemed  scarcely  to  have  left  its  impress, 
"  his  eye  not  dimmed  nor  his  natural  force  abated,"  he  fell 


76  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

before  the  stroke  of  the  destroyer.  He  had  exerted  himself 
in  the  discussion  of  a  great  cause  before  the  court  only  a 
few  days  before.  On  the  night  of  the  17th  February,  1822, 
he  sat  up  very  late,  amusing  himself  with  the  perusal  of  the 
Pirates ;  and  poured  forth  into  the  ear  of  private  friendship 
his  beautiful  strictures  upon  the  characters  introduced.  His 
mind  was  powerfully  excited.  I  remember  to  have  heard  a 
gentleman,  who  sat  with  him  for  a  short  time  during  that 
eventful  evening,  say  that  he  playfully  exhibited  the  most 
astonishing  feat  of  a  powerful  and  retentive  memory  he  had 
ever  witnessed.  That  night  he  was  struck  down  by  disease. 
He  lingered  on  until  the  night  of  the  25th,  in  severe  bodily 
suffering,  wandering  at  times  and  then  again  in  the  full  pos 
session  of  his  powers,  when  he  breathed  his  last.  His  phy 
sician,  Dr.  Theophilus  Parsons,  thought  him  at  first  quite 
out  of  danger,  and  so  wrote  to  his  afflicted  lady.  But  he 
was  mistaken  in  his  opinion,  as  the  event  sadly  proved.  His 
illness,  so  sudden  and  unexpected,  produced  a  profound  sen 
sation  in  the  country.  His  fellow-citizens,  who  had  so  re 
cently  witnessed  his  wondrous  eloquence  and  still  more  won 
derful  legal  logic,  and  were  high  in  expectancy,  as  he  was 
just  beginning  his  preparation  for  his  argument  with  Taze- 
well  of  Virginia,  were  illy  prepared  to  follow  in  the  funeral 
train  that  bore  him  to  his  resting-place,  near  the  banks  of 
the  beautiful  Potomac.  He  disappeared  with  startling  sud 
denness  from  the  sphere  of  glory  he  had  so  long  filled  ;  and 
grave  Senators  and  learned  judges  paid  a  befitting  tribute  to 
his  memory. 

There  was  no  gradual  breaking  down  of  his  giant  intel 
lect,  no  progressive,  slowly  developed  decay  in  his  splendid 
faculties.  He  fell  in  his  might  before  the  tribunal  he  de 
lighted  to  address  and  on  the  arena  he  most  loved  to  tread. 
He  fell  where  the  patriot  and  the  hero  would  ever  desire  to 
fall,  with  his  eyes  on  the  floating  stars  and  his  armor  on. 
Conscious  that  he  would  not  survive  the  shock,  he  prepared 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  77 

to  meet  the  summons  and  gently  fell  asleep.  There  was  a 
grandeur  in  the  close  of  his  brilliant  career.  He  could  never 
brook  the  idea  of  rusting  out.  He  preferred  the  higher  des 
tiny  of  the  candle  that  consumes  itself  in  burning.  He 
toiled  to  the  last  and  spurned  the  idea  of  intermitted  exer 
tion.  His  body  now  rests  in  the  same  grave-yard  where  lie 
so  many  of  his  illustrious  compeers.  A  simple  stone  monu 
ment  indicates  the  spot.  Besting  my  hand  upon  it,  with  my 
eye  on  the  few  letters  inscribed  thereon,  I  then  and  there 
realized  the  emptiness  of  earth,  and  asked  myself  the  ques 
tion,  what  is  life  with  all  of  earthly  renown  it  has  to  give, 
but  a  vapor  that  soon  passeth  away  ?  There  is  a  sweet  and 
touching  simplicity  in  this  the  chosen  sepulchre  of  our  distin 
guished  countrymen.  There  is  a  calm,  quiet  beauty  about 
it,  that  speaks  directly  to  the  heart.  The  green  grass  has 
grown  up  around  it,  and  the  birds  sing  in  the  leafy  boughs 
that  overshade  it. 

Crowds  throng  the  capitol  and  gaze  with  delight  upon 
the  lofty  dome  and  ornamented  grounds.  They  hang  with 
pride  and  pleasure  on  the  tongue  of  eloquence  which  still 
finds  within  its  walls  an  echo.  But  its  burial-ground  is  to 
me  a  still  more  attractive  object.  I  love  to  go  and  stand 
amid  the  monuments  of  our  past  greatness ;  and  in  the  sad 
and  pensive  solitudes  that  are  scarce  broken  by  a  sound,  I 
love  to  muse  and  meditate  on  the  memories  of  men  long 
since  dead,  as  fresh  and  fragrant  as  the  day  they  died.  There 
is  the  school  of  patriotism — there,  the  nursery  of  thoughts, 
great  and  pure  and  noble. 

I  come  now  to  discuss  the  intellectual  and  moral  charac 
ter  of  Mr.  Pinkney ;  and  I  am  free  to  confess  that  I  have 
chosen  a  task  most  difficult  to  execute.  I  am  impelled  to 
the  undertaking  by  natural  affection,  and  the  conviction  that 
the  exhibition  of  such  a  character,  in  all  the  hues  of  its 
blended  beauty  and  strength,  would  be  an  acceptable  offer 
ing  to  the  young  men  of  the  profession,  and  serve  to  stim- 


78  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

ulate  and  cheer  them  on  in  their  earnest  endeavor  to  emulate 
and  if  possible  excel  him  of  whom  I  write. 

Mr.  Pinkney's  character  (those  peculiar  and  striking 
moral  and  intellectual  elements,  which  were  its  very  warp 
and  woof)  has  been  pronounced,  by  Story,  a  study  worthy  of 
the  young  men  of  the  land ;  one  of  the  grandest  themes  the 
tongue  of  eloquence  can  touch  or  the  mind  of  genius  ana 
lyze.  And  while  I  feel,  and,  feeling,  deplore  my  inability  to 
do  any  thing  like  justice  to  the  theme,  I  hope  that  the  end 
will  more  than  justify  the  effort.  The  portrait,  which  I 
shall  endeavor  to  draw,  is  for  the  most  part  intellectual,  a 
daguerreotype  of  the  soul.  His  life,  as  has  been  already 
proved,  was  not  without  incident.  A  large  portion  of  it  was 
spent  in  the  most  stirring  events  of  the  most  eventful  period 
of  modern  history.  But  alas  !  many  of  those  incidents,  which 
constitute  so  important  a  portion  of  the  attractiveness  and 
usefulness  of  biography,  have  been  unhappily  lost  in  the  ever 
shifting  tide  of  time,  or  else  only  survive  in  a  dim  oral  tra 
dition.  His  habits  and  mode  of  private  life  are  to  be  seen, 
when  seen  at  all,  in  mere  floating  report,  good  as  far  as  it 
goes,  but  necessarily  defective  in  minute  and  copious  detail. 
For  many  of  the  incidents  which  ordinarily  make  up  history 
and  biography  I  possess  no  very  high  regard,  because  they 
do  not  serve  to  illustrate  the  subject.  There  are  a  thousand 
facts,  the  recital  of  which  may  amuse  the  superficial  and 
unreflecting ;  but  which,  as  they  do  not  set  forth  in  stronger 
light  the  philosophy  and  moral  of  the  subject,  overload  the 
memory  and  are  nothing  worth.  There  are  other  incidents, 
however,  of  the  very  last  importance.  Every  thing,  for  ex 
ample,  connected  with  the  personal  history  of  a  man  on 
whom  the  eyes  of  an  admiring  world  are  fixed,  is  of  interest. 
All  are  eager  to  know  his  inner  life — how  he  inured  his  soul 
to  the  stern  discipline  of  study,  and  sacrificed  ease  and 
pleasure  to  patient,  secluded  labor — what  were  his  habits  of 
reflection  and  the  pastimes  to  which  he  resorted  for  amuse- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  79 

inent — who  were  the  favorite  authors  that  cheered  his  hours 
of  solitude,  and  what  the  peculiar  tastes  that  adorned  his 
private  walk  among  men.  There  is  a  sort  of  mystery  in  the 
inner  life  of  the  great,  which  all  are  eager  to  explore.  The 
biographer,  who  can,  out  of  his  abundant  materials,  gratify 
this  natural  and  yearning  desire,  possesses  a  powerful  hold 
upon  the  sympathies  of  his  readers  and  exercises  a  most  po 
tent  influence  for  good.  It  is  to  be  regretted,  that  so  many  of 
the  touching  and  beautiful  incidents,  which  characterized  the 
life  and  illustrated  the  individuality  of  William  Pinlmey, 
are  lost  beyond  the  hope  of  recovery.  It  is  to  be  deeply  re 
gretted,  that  his  observations  on  men  and  things,  made  in 
the  exciting  scenes  of  his  foreign  service,  were  not  registered 
to  be  preserved  and  handed  down  to  the  ages  following ;  for 
he  was  a  close  and  discriminating  observer  of  both  men  and 
things.  Oi'ten  was  his  intercourse  with  his  more  confidential 
and  intimate  friends  seasoned  with  minute  and  graphic  criti 
cisms  of  what  passed  under  his  notice.  Some  of  the  most 
brilliant  specimens  of  his  rare  eloquence  and  profound  thought 
were  poured  forth  in  those  unreserved  critiques.  He  wrote 
much,  and  published  a  good  deal  while  in  England,  which  is 
now  lost.  A  number  of  documents  were  left  in  charge  of 
my  father,  containing  powerful  discussions  on  a  vast  variety 
of  the  leading  topics  of  the  day,  which  were  returned  to 
him  ;  all  of  which  have  perished. 

It  has  been  often  the  topic  of  remark  and  a  matter  of 
surprise,  that  a  mind  so  active  and  prolific,  exercised  in  con 
stant  contact  with  so  much  to  thrill  and  excite  it,  should 
have  left  so  little  written  behind.  But  the  wonder  is  solved 
by  the  fact,  that  there  was  no  effort  made  to  preserve  and 
hand  it  down.  Could  the  observations  that  fell  from  his  lips 
in  torrents  of  the  richest  eloquence  extending  to  an  almost 
infinite  variety  of  topics  be  now  recalled,  they  would  supply 
a  sad  chasm  in  his  eventful  life  and  constitute  one  of  the 
most  attractive  pages  of  biography.  For  it  is  in  the  unre- 


80  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

served  communion  of  heart  with  heart,  that  the  character 
shines  out  and  the  man  is  most  fully  developed.  But  alas  ! 
there  was  no  Boswell  equally  competent  and  eager  to  retain 
those  splendid  passages  of  a  life  that  nowhere  shone  so  re- 
splendently  as  in  the  endearments  of  a  friendship  he  fully 
trusted.  It  was  this  constant  contact  and  faithful  transcript, 
which  enabled  the  writer  of  the  life  of  Johnson  to  give  to  the 
world  the  most  beautiful  and  accurate  idea  of  what  a  biogra 
phy  should  be,  and  which  lent  the  most  bewitching  attrac 
tion  to  its  pages. 

I  possess  no  such  advantages.  The  time  was  when  like 
diligence  would  have  been  rewarded  by  like  results.  But 
that  time  has  passed.  And  in  the  dearth  of  this  pleasing 
and  instructive  material,  I  must  do  the  best  I  can,  and  let 
the  moral  and  intellectual  devlopment  make  up  as  best  it 
may  for  the  sad  deficiency. 

It  is  as  an  orator,  lawyer,  statesman  and  man,  that  I 
propose  to  consider  him.  In  the  analysis,  while  I  am  free 
to  confess  I  write  under  the  influence  of  long  cherished  and 
ardent  admiration,  and  lay  no  claim  to  exemption  from  the 
ordinary  infirmities  of  our  nature,  I  hope  I  shall  not  be  found 
to  sacrifice  the  great  principles  of  truth  and  justice  to  my 
inordinate  attachment  to  the  memory  of  the  dead. 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  81 


WILLIAM  PINKNEY  AN  ORATOR. 

WILLIAM  PINKNEY  was  an  orator.  But  what  is  oratory, 
and  who  is  worthy  of  this  august  title  ?  This  is  a  most  in 
teresting  inquiry,  interesting  in  itself  and  more  so  still  in 
the  light  it  casts  upon  the  illustrious  subject  of  this  me 
moir.  If  we  take  Cicero's  definition,  who  most  admirably 
illustrated  the  thing  he  defined,  "  composite,  ornate,  copiose 
eloqui 7; — or  the  still  more  comprehensive  "  quarn  ob  rem,  si 
quis  universam  et  propriam  oratoris  vim  definire  complecti- 
que  vult,  is  orator  erit,  mea  sententia,  hoc  tarn  gravi  dignus 
nomine,  qui,  quaacumque  res  incident,  quee  sit  dictione,  ex- 
plicanda,  prudenter,  et  composite,  et  ornate  et  memoriter 
dicat,  cum  quadam  etiam  actionis  dignitate."  I  repeat,  if 
we  take  Cicero's  definition,  there  are  few  among  the  living 
or  the  dead,  who  can  be  found  equally  entitled  to  the  term. 
Not  to  dwell  upon  his  physical  advantages,  his  fine  com 
manding  person,  his  voice  of  singular  sweetness,  variety,  com 
pass  and  flexibility  of  tone,  and  his  impressive  and  emphatic 
action  ;  he  possessed  a  most  vigorous  and  brilliant  imagina 
tion,  and  a  depth  of  keen,  discriminating  analysis  in  union 
with  the  most  lively  and  acute  sensibilities.  His  command 
of  language  was  marvellous  in  the  extreme.  For  beauty, 
force  and  splendor  of  diction,  he  was  unrivalled.  It  flowed 
forth  in  a  continuous  stream  of  surprising  accuracy  and  rich 
ness  ;  no  word  misapplied,  no  word  misapprehended.  True  it 
is,  he  had  some  few  natural  defects  of  manner  and  some  few 
artificial.  But  still  with  all,  and  despite  of  all,  he  was  an 
orator  of  the  very  first  class  and  among  the  very  foremost  of 
that  class.  If  by  oratory  we  mean  the  power  to  mould  and 


82  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

melt  the  heart  at  pleasure,  captivate  and  thrill  the  under 
standing  and  sway  the  judgment — if  by  oratory  we  mean 
not  only  the  magic  tone,  and  emphatic  look,  and  commanding 
gesture,  but  the  capacity  to  express  in  words  best  suited  to 
the  theme  the  vivid  and  grand  conceptions  of  the  brain,  and 
the  imagination  to  combine  and  weave  them  together,  and 
then  the  power  to  breathe  into  them  life  and  energy — if  all 
this  be  meant  by  oratory,  then  William  Pinkney  was  an 
orator. 

There  are  different  kinds  of  oratory  as  there  are  different 
degrees  in  its  perfection.  There  is  the  soft  and  persuasive, 
which  falls  on  the  heart  like  dew  and  lingers  on  the  enchanted 
ear  like  dulcet  notes  of  music  ;  and  there  is  the  impetuous 
and  overpowering,  which  bears  down  all  before  it,  like  the 
onward  rush  of  the  foaming  cataract.  Mr.  Pinkney's  oratory 
was  impetuous  and  overpowering.  He  could  touch  the  ten 
der  chords  with  the  hand  of  a  master,  and  call  forth,  when 
he  willed,  the  softest  tones  to  melt  and  subdue  the  listener ; 
but  most  commonly  he  spoke  to  command  and  bear  down, 
and  such  was  the  might  and  majesty  of  his  eloquence  that  it 
took  captive  every  hearer  at  its  will.  It  was  masterful  and 
victorious.  The  elements  of  power  were  blended  in  it  so  ex 
quisitely,  that  you  could  scarqp  discover  where  the  one  began 
or  the  other  ended.  Matter  and  manner  alike  conspired  to 
make  him  an  orator.  He  was  as  deep  as  he  was  brilliant. 
His  rhetoric  was  thus  convincing  and  his  oratory  thus  mas 
terful,  because  they  were  the  lustre  and  the  solidity  of  the 
diamond  combined.  Full  of  the  most  magnificent  illustra 
tions,  the  birth  of  an  imagination  naturally  strong,  and 
cultivated  with  the  most  studious  care  and  exquisite  taste, 
and  enriched  with  the  latest  stores  of  an  ever  accumulating 
learning ;  he  threw  all  over  the  dry  discussions  of  the  law 
a  bewitching  fascination,  and  set  forth  its  august  principles 
with  a  fulness  and  a  power  seldom  evoked. 

The  testimony  which  is  borne  to  the  marvellous  impres- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  83 

siveness  of  Mr.  Pinkney' s  speaking  upon  any  subject  on  any 
forum,  at  the  bar  or  in  tbe  Senate  chamber,  or  before  the 
populace,  cannot  be  mistaken.  It  comes  up  from  too  many 
sources  to  falsify  itself.  Eeport  speaks  of  verdicts  forced 
from  juries  by  his  eloquent  tongue  ;  and  learned  judges,  who 
were  compelled  to  bring  around  them,  and  summon  to  their 
aid,  all  the  sterner  attributes  of  their  office  in  their  endeavor 
to  dissipate  the  spell  of  the  charmer  ;  not  once,  but  again 
and  again.  The  writer  of  this  memoir  has  often  heard  the 
late  John  Stephen  (one  of  the  judges  of  the  old  court  of 
Appeals,  one  of  the  purest  and  most  upright  of  judges,  an 
ornament  of  the  bench  where  he  dispensed  law  and  justice, 
not  more  respected  for  his  ripe  learning  than  his  rare  modesty, 
nice  sense  of  judicial  propriety  and  love  of  genuine  forensic 
eloquence)  say,  that  he  had  heard  Mr.  Pinkney  indulge  in 
such  strains  of  lofty  eloquence  in  so  many  pleadings  before 
the  court,  that  he  wholly  despaired  of  ever  hearing  any  thing 
like  it  again  ;  and  that  too,  when  returning  from  the  capitol 
of  the  country  and  the  presence  of  the  American  Senate 
chamber  in  the  day  of  its  proudest  fame.  Judge  Story,  an 
other  of  the  bright  lights  of  American  jurisprudence  (I 
might  say  one  of  the  brightest),  tells  us  in  his  exquisite  sketch, 
that  "  no  one  could  listen  to  him  for  many  minutes  without 
forgetting  all  the  defects  of  art  or  taste  in  the  overpowering 
sensations  of  delight !  "  And  in  Story's  life  just  issued  from 
the  press,  there  are  many  additional  proofs  of  the  power 
wielded  by  Pinkney  over  that  consummate  judge.  In  letter 
after  letter,  Story  pours  forth  expressions  of  wonder  and  as 
tonishment  at  the  surpassing  splendor  of  his  mind,  and  the 
depth  of  his  ratiocination,  and  copiousness  and  compass  of  his 
legal  learning.  Amid  the  living  forms  of  Dexter  and  Emmet, 
orators  of  whom  any  land  might  be  proud,  Pinkney  stood 
forth  the  confessed  favorite  of  Story.  That  I  may  not  be 
supposed  to  overestimate  his  opinion  of  Mr.  Pinkney,  I  will 
insert  one  or  two  extracts  from  letters  recently  published. 


84  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

"  Every  time  I  hear  Pinkney  he  rises  higher  and  higher  in  my 
estimation.  His  clear  and  forcible  manner  of  putting  his 
case  before  the  court,  his  powerful  and  commanding  eloquence, 
occasionally  illuminated  Avith  sparkling  lights^  but  always 
logical  and  appropriate,  and  above  all,  his  accurate  and  dis 
criminating  law  knowledge,  which  he  pours  out  with  wonder 
ful  precision — give  him  in  my  opinion  a  great  superiority 
over  every  man  whom  I  have  known.  I  have  seen  in  a  single 
man  each  of  those  qualities  separate,  but  never  before  com 
bined  in  so  extraordinary  a  degree."  Again:  "  His  genius 
and  eloquence  were  so  lofty,  I  might  almost  say,  so  unrivalled, 
his  learning  so  extensive,  his  ambition  so  elevated,  his  polit 
ical  and  constitutional  principles  so  truly  just  and  pure,  his 
weight  in  the  public  councils  so  decisive,  his  character  at  the 
bar  so  peerless  and  commanding,  that  there  seems  now  left  a 
dismal  and  perplexing  vacancy.  I  write  to  you  while  sitting 
in  court,  and  as  the  argument  is  now  taking  an  interesting 
turn,  I  must  now  stop  and  listen  ;  but  never  do  I  expect  to 
hear  a  man  like  Pinkney.  He  was  a  man  who  appears 
scarcely  once  a  century."  Speaking  of  Dexter  he  adds :  "  I 
always  considered  him  second  only  to  our  inimitable  friend 
Pinkney.  In  the  phrase  of  a  painter,  I  would  say  Pinkney' s 
character  and  mind  would  be  a  great  study." — Story's  Life. 
Vol.  I. 

And  who  was  Story  ?  Himself  one  of  the  first  men  the 
country  has  produced,  in  whom  the  very  soul  of  eloquence 
glowed  ;  a  stern  judge  called  upon  to  weigh  arguments  and 
resist  eloquence,  save  where  they  were  the  faithful  echoes  of 
law  and  justice,  with  no  spirit  of  rivalry  to  bias  his  judg 
ment,  and  all  his  enthusiastic  love  of  the  North  to  excite 
his  sectional  pride — is  spell-bound,  thrilled,  transported  by 
the  wonderful  powers  of  Pinkney' s  oratory.  A  mixed  audience 
might  have  been  deceived,  and  juries  hurried  on  beyond  dis 
cretion,  by  the  melodious  tone,  the  look,  or  gesture  ;  but 
Story  could  only  have  been  so  moved  and  excited  by  the  true 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  85 

genius  of  oratory.  I  know  nothing  which  affords  a  more 
demonstrative  evidence  of  the  power  of  an  orator,  than  the 
ability  to  move  and  sway  so  consummate  a  judge,  himself  pre 
eminently  skilled  in  all  the  mysteries  of  the  moving  art. 
Marshall,  a  more  severe  judge  of  oratory,  because  not  him 
self  of  the  imaginative  cast,  paid  a  no  less  marked  and 
splendid  tribute  in  the  memorable  opinion  in  the  Nereide. 

"With  a  pencil  dipped  in  the  most  vivid  colors,  and 
guided  by  the  hand  of  a  master,  a  splendid  portrait  has  been 
drawn,  exhibiting  this  vessel  and  her  freighter  as  forming  a 
single  figure,  composed  of  the  most  discordant  materials  of 
peace  and  war.  So  exquisite  was  the  skill  of  the  artist,  so 
dazzling  the  garb  in  which  the  figure  was  painted,  that  it 
required  the  exercise  of  that  cold  investigating  faculty  which 
ought  always  to  belong  to  those  who  sit  on  this  bench,  to 
discover  its  only  imperfection — its  want  of  resemblance." 
— Marshall's  Opinion  in  the  Nereide. 

I  dwell  upon  these  frank  and  ingenuous  attestations,  be 
cause  it  has  been  sometimes  denied  that  Mr.  Pinkney  was  an 
orator. 

The  distinguished  biographer  of  Mr.  Wirt,  whose  tran 
scendent  talents  I  am  neither  slow  to  acknowledge  nor  re 
luctant  to  praise,  has  done  injustice — I  will  do  him  the  jus 
tice  to  believe,  unintentional — to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Pink 
ney.  That  accomplished  scholar  says  (page  400,  Vol.  I.)  that 
"  impartial  and  judicious  estimate  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  powers 
and  acquirements  seems  rarely  to  have  been  accorded  to  him. " 
— and  then  again  he  speaks  "  of  exaggerated  praise."  Now 
the  learned  and  Hon.  Ex- Secretary  of  the  Navy  will,  I  think, 
find  it  difficult  to  sustain  his  judgment,  when  he  remembers, 
that  a  Story  professes  himself  the  delighted  captive  of  an 
eloquence  as  rare  as  it  was  brilliant,  "  embellished,  when  the 
occasion  called  for  it3  with  all  the  gorgeous  amplitude  and 
magnificence  of  a  Bolingbroke  and  Burke ; "  and  listens  to 
the  warnings  of  a  Marshall,  declaring  that  it  required  all  the 


86  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

sterner  quailities  of  the  judge  to  resist  the  power  of  the  ad 
vocate.  If  this  be  exaggerated  praise — if  impartial  and  ju 
dicious  estimate  of  power  and  acquirement  be  not  here  ac 
corded,  we  must  adopt  the  opinion  that  Marshall  and  Story 
were  not  competent  to  judge,  or  else  given  to  sycophantic 
and  servile  praise.  The  trophies  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  powers 
are  too  numerous  and  exalted  to  admit  of  depreciation  with 
impunity,  now  that  the  winding-sheet  and  shroud  are  the 
only  covering  of  the  mighty  dead  ;  and  surely  on  no  soil  less 
appropriate,  and  by  no  pen  less  befitting,  could  the  wrong  be 
perpetrated,  which  would  dim  in  the  least  the  fame  of  Pink- 
ney,  than  on  the  soil  of  his  birth,  and  by  the  pen  of  one, 
whom  his  fellow-citizens  have  delighted  to  honor  as  another 
of  her  distinguished  sons. 

The  title  of  Mr.  Pinkney  to  the  character  of  an  orator  de 
pends  not  then  on  the  breath  of  mere  popular  applause.  It 
is  based  on  a  rock  impervious  to  the  assaults  of  envy — the 
possession  of  the  highest  intellectual  endowments  and  the 
achievement  of  the  rarest  intellectual  victories,  not  obtained 
over  ignorance  and  folly,  but  over  the  noblest  and  most  com 
manding  intellect ;  not  once,  but  again  and  again,  amid  com 
petitors  with  whom  it  would  be  a  signal  honor  to  dispute  the 
palm  for  ascendency. 

That  Mr.  Pinkney  was  the  butt  of  much  illiberal  and 
envious  depreciation,  I  am  ready  to  admit.  But  the  names 
of  his  depredators  will  perish,  while  his  own  endures.  Who 
need  be  reminded  that  a  member  of  Congress  held  up  his 
speech  on  the  Missouri  compromise  to  public  scorn  and  ridi 
cule  ;  and  is  ignorant  that  the  anonymous  calumny  has  out 
lived  every  other  deed  of  the  author.  Defamation  is  easy. 
Fault-finding  is  the  work  of  little  minds.  If  the  fact  that 
Mr.  Pinkney  was  "  hawked  at  by  such  mousing  owls,  birds 
of  the  night,"  who  could  not  endure  the  bright  shining  of 
the  sun,  be  proof  that  judicious  and  impartial  estimate  has 
been  rarely  accorded  to  him ; — why  then,  indeed,  the  biogra- 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  87 

pher  of  Mr.  Wirt  has  proved  his  point.  But  if  the  facts 
above  enumerated — the  power  wielded  by  Mr.  Pinkney  over 
such  minds  as  Story's  and  Marshall's  ;  his  holding,  time  and 
again,  large  promiscuous  audiences  spell-bound  through  the. 
long  discussions  of  dry  questions  of  law — be  not  proof  of 
oratorical  power  and  profound  acquirement,  why,  then,  there 
can  be  no  proof  adduced  which  is  conclusive  of  the  point. 

There  will  be  always  envious  detractions,  jealous  out- 
breakings.  Some  minds  are  proof  against  proof.  I  do  riot 
mean  to  intimate  that  so  distinguished  a  scholar  as  Mr. 
Kennedy,  can  be  classified  with  such.  I  only  regret  that  he 
should  have  permitted  himself  to  lend  even  a  seeming  sanc 
tion  to  their  crude  criticisms,  and  recorded,  as  his  deliberate 
judgment,  the  opinion  "that  judicious  and  impartial  esti 
mate  of  Mr.  Pinkney 's  power  and  acquirements  was  rarely 
accorded  to  him."  I  regret  it,  because  the  severity  of  his 
censure  must  fall  upon  the  best  judges  of  forensic  ability  in 
the  land,  and  place  him  among  the  critics  of  one,  whom,  to 
use  the  language  of  Johnson,  if  we  are  correct  in  our  facts, 
"  it  is  vain  to  blame  and  useless  to  praise." 

Had  I  undertaken  to  indulge  in  a  mere  indiscriminate 
praise  and  immoderate  eulogy,  Mr.  Kennedy  would  be  safe 
from  impeachment ;  for  his  competency  to  judge  would  be 
deemed  greater  than  my  own.  But  facts  are  stubborn  things, 
and  no  man  can  overturn  them.  It  is  to  facts  I  appeal.  The 
claim  to  oratory  is  one  thing  ;  the  achievements  of  oratory 
are  another.  The  claim  I  predicate  on  the  achievements, 
and  I  feel  a  strong  confidence,  that  the  judgment  of  Mr. 
Kennedy  cannot  stand  so  long  as  those  achievements  exist. 
My  appeal  is  from  Mr.  Kennedy  to  the  Storys  and  MarshaUs 
of  the  land.  V 

John  Randolph  knew  and  felt  the  power  of  Mr.  Pinkney  ; 
and  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  after  full  opportunities  of  judg 
ing,  he  pronounced  the  following  eulogy : 

"  We  have  been  talking  of  General  Jackson,  and  a  greater 


88  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

man  than  he  is  not  here,  but  gone  for  ever  !  I  allude,  sir,  to 
the  boast  of  Maryland  and  the  pride  of  the  United  States, — 
the  pride  of  us  all,  and  particularly  the  pride  and  ornament 
of  that  profession  of  which  you,  Mr.  Speaker  (Stephenson), 
are  a  member,  and  an  eminent  one.  He  was  a  man  with 
whom  I  lived  \vhen  a  member  of  this  house,  and  a  new  one 
too ;  and  ever  since  he  left  it  for  the  other — I  speak  it  with 
pride — in  habits  not  merely  negatively  friendly,  but  of  kind 
ness  and  cordiality.  /The  last  time  I  saw  him  was  on  Sat 
urday,  the  last  Saturday  but  one,  in  the  pride  of  life,  and 
full  possession  and  vigor  of  all  his  faculties,  in  that  lobby. 
He  is  now  gone  to  his  account  (for  as  the  tree  falls  so  must 
it  lie)  where  we  must  all  go — where  I  must  soon  go,  and  by 
the  same  road  too — the  course  of  nature  ;  and  where  all  of 
us,  put  off  the  evil  day  as  we  may,  must  also  go.  For  what 
is  the  past  but  a  span  ;  and  which  of  us  can  look  forward 
to  as  many  years  as  we  have  lived  ?  The  last  act  of  inter 
course  between  us  was  an  act,  the  recollection  of  which  I 
would  not  be  without  for  all  the  offices  that  all  the  men  of 
the  United  States  have  filled,  or  ever  shall  fill.  He  had,  in 
deed,  his  faults,  his  foibles ;  I  should  rather  say  his  sins. 
Who  is  without  them  ?  Let  such,  such  only,  cast  the  first 
stone.  And  these  foibles,  if  you  will,  which  every  body 
could  see,  because  every  body  is  clear-sighted  with  regard  to 
the  faults  and  foibles  of  others,  he,  I  have  no  doubt,  would 
have  been  the  first  to  acknowledge  on  a  proper  representation 
of  them.  Every  thing  now  is  hidden  from  us, — not,  God 
forbid,  that  utter  darkness  rests  upon  the  grave,  which,  hid 
eous  as  it  is,  is  lighted,  cheered,  and  warmed  with  light  from 
heaven ;  not  the  impious  fire  fabled  to  be  stolen  from  heaven 
by  the  heathen,  but  by  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God,  whom 
we  profess  to  worship,  and  whom  I  hope  we  shall  spend  the 
remainder  of  the  day  in  worshipping ;  not  with  mouth  honor, 
but  in  our  hearts,  in  spirit  and  in  truth ;  that  it  may  not  be 
said  of  us  also,  c  this  people  draweth  nigh  to  me  with  their 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  89 

lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from  me/  Yes,  it  is  just  so ;  he  is 
gone.  I  will  not  say  that  our  loss  is  irreparable,  because  such 
a  man  as  has  existed,  may  exist  again.  There  has  been  a 
Homer,  there  has  been  a  Shakspeare,  there  has  been  a 
Milton,  there  has  been  a  Newton.  There  may  be  another 
Pinkney,  but  there  is  none  now.  And  it  was  to  announce 
this  event  that  I  have  risen.  I  am  almost  inclined  to  believe 
in  presentiments.  I  have  been,  all  along,  as  well  assured  of 
the  fatal  termination  of  that  disease  with  which  he  was  af 
flicted,  as  I  am  now  ;  and  I  have  dragged  my  weary  limbs 
before  sunrise  to  the  door  of  his  sick  chamber  (for  I  would 
not  intrude  on  the  sacred  grief  of  the  family),  almost  every 
morning  since.  From  the  first,  I  had  almost  no  hope." 

"In  those  early  and  pious  visitations  to  the  sick  chamber 
of  virtue  and  genius  (says  Mr.  Garland,  the  accomplished 
biographer  of  Kandolph),  he  was  frequently  accompanied  by 
the  Chief  Justice.  What  a  beautiful  and  touching  tribute 
to  the  memory  of  Pinkney,  that  the  greatest  orator  and 
statesman,  and  the  greatest  jurist  of  his  age,  should  watch 
with  so  much  interest  and  tenderness  the  last  expiring  breath 
of  him,  who  in  life  had  rivalled  the  one  in  eloquence  and  the 
other  in  profound  learning." — Randolph's  Life,  vol.  ii.  169, 170. 

No  man  was  more  sparing  of  his  praise, — and  yet  he 
bowed  in  willing  homage  before  the  oratory  of  Pinkney,  be 
cause  it  was  genuine  and  pure ;  thought  and  feeling  com 
bined,  dressed  in  the  most  exquisite  garb  ;  words  of  beauty 
and  images  of  fire. 

I  make  on  this  head  no  comparisons.  I  desire  to  make 
none.  In  a  country  that  has  given  birth  to  a  Patrick  Henry, 
an  Ames,  a  Dexter,  a  Wirt,  a  Clay,  a  Calhoun,  and  a  Web 
ster,  orators  who  may  well  vie  with  those  of  Greece,  and 
Home  ;  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  institute  invidious  compari 
sons.  But  still  among  them,  in  the  foremost  rank,  stood 
William  Pinkney;  and  that  as  I  have  shown,  not  in  my  too 
partial  estimate,  but  upon  the  authority  of  those  who  were 


90  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNET. 

farthest  removed  from  the  bias  of  prejudice,  and  otherwise  most 
competent  to  decide. 

A  contributor  to  the  North  American,  vol.  xxiv.  page  68, 
thus  ^yrites  : 

"To  the  time  of  his  last  appearance  in  public  in  Wash 
ington,  the  court  room  was  always  thronged  with  the  wise, 
the  learned  and  the  fashionable,  when  it  was  known  that  he 
was  to  speak ;  and  he  uniformly  riveted  the  attention  of  his 
auditors  through  the  technical  detail  of  his  longest  and  dryest 
arguments."  And  the  same  might  be  said,  with  equal  truth, 
of  his  repeated  efforts  in  other  tribunals  in  other  portions  of 
the  Union.  This  one  fact  is  worth  a  thousand  assertions,  in 
proof  of  his  power  as  an  orator. 

The  discussions  of  the  Senate  chamber  are  of  deep  and 
absorbing  interest  to  the  crowds  that  are  accustomed  to  at 
tend  upon  them.  The  orator  has  in  his  subject  a  strong 
and  powerful  chord  of  sympathy  between  himself  and  his 
audience.  Not  so,  except  in  a  few  particular  cases,  in  the 
discussions  before  the  court.  And  yet  Mr.  Pinkney  kept  his 
fascinating  spell  upon  the  large  and  promiscuous  crowd,  at 
the  same  time  he  poured  into  the  ear  of  judicial  wisdom  the 
wonderful  stream  of  his  concise  and  profound  legal  logic. 
The  wise  and  the  learned  would  sit  for  hours  delighted  and 
thrilled,  while  such  masters  of  the  law,  as  the  judges  of  the 
supreme  court,  were  time  and  again  greeted  with  a  chain  of 
legal  argument  as  massive  and  solid  in  its  structure,  as  though 
each  link  was  of  diamond  solidity  and  the  whole  a  cable  of 
impregnable  strength. 

I  give  to  the  malicious  and  envious  the  full  weight  of  the 
defects  they  are  able  to  discover, — I  listen  unmoved  to  their 
fastidious  criticisms,  so  long  as  this  one  fact  (excelled  in  none 
of  the  features  of  mental  and  moral  grandeur  by  the  present 
or  the  past)  remains  undisputed  and  indisputable.  The 
eloquence  of  Pericles  is  known  chiefly  by  its  effects,  and  it 
has  been  said  of  him  by  one  competent  to  judge,  "  that  he 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  91 

was  strong  in  the  weakness  of  his  audience."  Not  so,  the 
subject  of  this  memoir.  Mr.  Gilmer  of  Virginia  furnishes 
ine?  in  his  masterly  sketches,  with  a  happy  conclusion  to  this 
portion  of  my  portraiture  !  "  The  powers  of  Mr.  Pinkney's 
mind  seemed  to  strengthen  with  his  years  and  expand  with 
his  subject.  Of  all  the  exhibitions  of  his  eloquence,  his  reply 
to  Mr.  King  in  the  Senate  on  the  Missouri  restriction  "  (of 
which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  hereafter),  "was,  perhaps, 
that  in  which  the  force  of  his  genius  was  the  most  conspicu 
ous  and  overwhelming,  and  enough  of  itself  to  entitle  him  to 
the  first  place  among  living  orators.  He  not  only  sustained 
his  reputation,  but  surpassed  the  most  exaggerated  ideas 
which  had  been  entertained  of  his  abilities.  Seldom  in  either 
hemisphere  has  the  English  language  been  the  medium  of 
sublimer  eloquence.  He  shed  lustre  upon  letters,  renown 
upon  Congress,  glory  on  the  country!  The  United  States 
owe  lasting  obligations  to  Mr.  Pinkney  for  having  scattered 
the  forces  of  political  crusaders  before  they  began  their  devas 
tations/' — Gilmer's  Sketches,  p.  53.  . 

Eloquentia  aut  gequavit  praestantissimorum  gloriam  aut 
excessit.  Quis  sententiis  aut  acutior  aut  crebrior  ?  Quis 
verbis  aut  ornatior  aut  elegantior  ?  Auclax  orator,  cumula- 
tus  omni  laude. 


92  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 


PINKNEY  A  LAWYER. 

MR.  PINKNEY  was  more  than  an  orator.  He  was  a  consum 
mate  lawyer.  The  bar  was  his  own  chosen  and  favorite 
arena.  If  he  left  it  for  a  season,  it  was  only  to  serve  his 
country  and  recruit  his  exhausted  strength,  after  labors 
that  would  have  crushed  a  less  vigorous  constitution  ;  and 
to  return  to  it  with  increased  ardor  and  intensity,  and 
with  additional  stores  of  vast  and  varied  learning.  He 
studied  law,  as  before  stated,  intently  amid  the  blandishments 
and  glitter  of  foreign  courts,  and  never  for  a  moment  lost 
sight  of  this,  the  calling  in  life  most  suited  to  his  tastes  and 
congenial  to  his  habits.  Not  more  remarkable  for  depth  and 
accuracy  than  extent  and  variety  of  legal  learning,  he  stood 
by  universal  suffrage  in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  advocates. 
Every  inch  of  his  fame  in  this  department  was  won  by  giant 
struggles  and  herculean  labors.  He  relied  not  on  the  singu 
lar  quickness  of  his  perceptions.  He  depended  not  on  force 
of  genius.  Not  satisfied  with  having  mastered  all  the  great 
principles  of  the  legal  science,  he  sought  in  each  case  he 
argued,  to  enlarge  his  own  professional  attainments.  His 
hard-earned  fame  he  kept  constantly  before  him  ;  and  each 
succeeding  effort  was  but  a  struggle  to  surpass  himself. 

It  was  his  great  ambition  to  toil  night  and  day  in  the 
investigation  and  elucidation  of  the  merits  of  a  cause,  so  that 
he  might  hope  to  enlighten  each  tribunal  he  addressed.  By 
turning  to  the  law  reports  of  the  day,  meagre  and  insufficient 
as  most  of  them  are,  we  shall  find  not  a  few  acknowledgments 
from  sources  whose  names  are  praise,  that  he  did  not  labor 
in  vain.  Those  records  teem  with  the  matured  fruits  of  his 
large  experience  and  profound  learning.  The  philosophy  of 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  93 

the  Law  was  his  study  and  delight ;  and  ever  animated  by 
the  most  exalted  sense  of  the  dignity -and  grandeur  of  his 
profession,  he  always  addressed  himself  to  the  higher  feelings 
and  principles  of  our  nature. 

Mr.  Pinkney  possessed  two  very  rare  qualities,  rare  at 
least  in  their  combination,  viz.,  the  power  of  concentration, 
and  the  power  of  amplification.  And  each  he  possessed  in 
marvellous  perfection.  He  could  go  down  to  the  very  kernel, 
and  contract  the  lines  of  his  argument,  until  at  the  very 
heart  of  his  subject  you  could  see  it  through  and  through  ;  or 
he  could  sow  his  arguments  broadcast,  and  expand  and  amplify 
them,  until  you  were  completely  overpowered  by  the  surpassing 
luxuriance  of  thought  and  fertility  of  intellectual  resources. 

He  particularly  excelled  in  the  statement  of  a  cause. 
Judge  Story  says  of  him,  that  his  very  statement  was  an 
argument.  And  I  know  not  that  a  more  striking  proof 
could  be  afforded  of  the  power  of  condensation.  There  was 
one  thing  that  marked  the  character  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  mind, 
as  I  have  already  intimated,  and  strikingly  distinguished  it 
from  that  of  most  other  men,  ancient  and  modern.  I  allude 
to  the  union  of  depth  and  brilliancy.  He  was  the  most 
argumentative  of  speakers  ;  and  when  he  chose,  he  could  be 
dazzlingly  gorgeous.  Judge  Marshall  bore  honorable  witness 
to  his  argumentative  powers,  of  which  he  possessed  a  rare 
opportunity  of  judging,  when  he  pronounced  him,  as  Story 
tells  us,  the  closest  reasoner  he  had  ever  heard.  Of  the 
scope  and  vigor  of  his  imagination  it  would  be  idle  to  speak. 

The  opinion  has  been  entertained,  and  not  unfrequently 
advanced,  that  brilliancy  and  depth  are,  as  it  were,  antago 
nistic  to  each  other ;  dissociabiles  res,  which  are  incapable  of 
combination  in  a  single  mind.  Profundity  has  been  associated 
with  dryness.  Tropes  and  figures  of  rhetoric,  similes  and 
metaphors,  have  been  deemed  beneath  the  use  of  a  logical 
reasoner.  That  they  are,  in  point  of  fact,  oftentimes  dis 
sociabiles  res,  no  one  will  or  can  dispute,  who  has  witnessed 


94  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

the  mental  developments  of  the  age,  and  seen  how  one  will 
excel  in  splendid  declamation  who  is  totally  disqualified  to 
unravel  the  intricate  thread  of  an  argument,  and  pursue  a 
close  logical  discussion ;  and  another  exhibit  great  powers  of 
reasoning,  who  is  incapable  of  soaring,  on  strong  wing, 
among  things  grand  and  beautiful.  But  that  there  is  any 
antagonism  between  the  two  I  totally  deny.  The  imagination 
is  not  opposed  to  the  reasoning  faculty,  or  inconsistent  with 
it.  On  the  contrary  it  is,  when  possessed  in  perfection,  one 
of  its  most  valuable  and  powerful  auxiliaries.  It  groups  and 
combines,  and  then  all  over  the  dry  fiejd  of  argumentation 
it  diffuses  the  energy  of  an  ever  active  life.  Johnson  main 
tained  "  that  metaphorical  expression  is  of  great  excellence 
in  style,  where  it  is  used  with  propriety,  because  it  gives  us 
two  ideas  for  one,  and  conveys  the  meaning  more  luxuriously, 
and  generally  with  a  perception  of  delight."  It  is  a  gross 
and  unwarrantable  disparagement  of  the  imagination,  to  con 
sider  its  chief  office  to  be  embellishment.  The  imagination 
is  eminently  practical.  It  sees  things  in  their  strongest  light 
and  sets  them  forth  with  uncommon  vigor.  When  combined 
with  a  faculty  mighty  to  reason,  it  is  eminently  argumenta 
tive.  By  making  the  discussion  more  grand,  and  imparting 
something  of  its  own  magnificence  to  the  mere  deductions 
of  reason,  it  does  not  diminish  the  strength  or  abate  the 
vigor.  It  throws  light  and  heat  all  around  it.  It  illustrates, 
enforces,  deepens  the  impression.  It  is  the  soul  of  argument, 
and  in  its  sublimest  and  mightiest  soarings,  it  is  vehement 
argumentation.  Of  course,  I  am  speaking  of  imagination 
when  in  combination  with  logical  precision  and  mental  force 
— imagination  in  its  highest  form  and  noblest  development ; 
the  imagination  of  a  well-balanced  and  thoroughly  disci 
plined  mind.  Where  the  reasoning  faculty  is  weak,  the  im 
agination  cannot  supply  the  deficiency.  It  may  dazzle  and 
corruscate,  but  it  cannot  enlighten.  It  may  inflame  and  ex 
cite  the  feelings,  but  it  will  not  assist  or  inform  the  judgment. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  95 

But  where  the  reasoning  power  exists  and  exerts  itself,  the 
imagination,  seizing  hold  of  the  deductions  of  reason,  and  fol 
lowing  it  pari  passu  in  its  most  elaborate  processes ;  or  else 
anticipating  it  in  its  somewhat  prophetic  spirit,  gives  them 
life,  and  clothes  them  with  increased  might  and  power.     I 
am  not  combating  a  shadow — endeavoring  to  refute  a  mere 
figment  of  my  own  fancy.     For  what  is  more  common  than 
the  expression,  that  a  speech  or  argument  is  beautiful  and 
splendid,  but  that  it  wants  depth  and  force — or  that  a  speech 
is  solid  and  convincing,  but  dry  and  argumentative.     The 
expression  has  its  foundation  in  the  popular  misapprehension 
of  the  subject.    What  is  dry,  is  oftentimes  deemed  profound, 
because  it  is  dry ;  and  what  is  splendid  is  deemed  unsub 
stantial,  because  it  is  splendid.     Men  forget  that  there  is  a 
diamond  in  the  mind,  a  diamond  brilliancy  and  a  diamond 
solidity, — that  the  imagination  is  the  handmaid  of  reason, 
— that  where  the  power  to  explore  the  depths  of  a  subject 
exists,  the  imagination  is  an  efficient  helper  in  the  explora 
tion.      The  union  of  the  imaginative  with   the  reasoning 
faculty,  is  as  rare  as  the  possession  of  first-rate  intellect.  But 
it  is  not  a  thing  impossible.     It  has  existed, — it  does  exist ; . 
and  where  it  exists,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that 
the  one  strengthens  and  enriches  the  other, — that  the  two 
are  more  powerful  in  union.     "  It  was  not  a  chain  of  reason 
ing,  though  close  and  cogent  as  if  delivered  in  the  Areopa 
gus  ]  it  was  not  only  a  display  of  imagination,  however  chas 
tened  from  Asiatic  luxuriance ;  nor  an  appeal  to  the  passions, 
however  moving  and  vehement ;  it  was  a  combination  of  all 
that  in  the  language  of  a  distinguished  Greek  scholar  gave 
to  the  eloquence  of  Pericles  its  power  and  charm,  and  secured 
for  him  the  title  of  the  Prince  of  eloquence  in  his  genera 
tion/'     It  was  a  like  combination  that  gave  to  Mr.  Pinkney 
his  vast  celebrity  as  an  orator  and  lawyer,  during  a  life  spent 
in  the  constant  struggles  of  the  forum.     His  imagination 
never  degenerated  into  mere  vapid  declamation.     It  burned 


96  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

and  glowed  all  along  the  path  of  his  argument,  and  enriched 
it  occasionally  with  what  Judge  Story  calls  "sparkling 
lights/'  never  alien  to  the  strict  line  of  the  argument  or  held 
up  in  the  wrong  place.  >  His  imagination  was  but  the  poetic 
form  of  his  ratiocination — the  dazzling  garb  now  and  then 
thrown  over  the  cooler  deductions  of  his  reasoning.  Indeed, 
.the  imagination  and  the  reasoning  faculty  were  the  workshop, 
in  which  his  massive  argument  was  woven,  and  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  separate  the  golden  and  silver  threads  of 
the  woof,  without  wholly  marring  the  texture.  Burke  was 
the  profoundest  of  philosophers,  and  yet  he  possessed  a  huge 
imagination,  which  poured  a  flood  of  light  over  the  pathway 
of  his  argumentation ;  and  he  must  be  pitied,  who  cannot 
see  that  the  profound  was  rendered  more  profound  by  the  vast 
compass  and  gorgeous  magnificence  of  the  imagination,  which 
enlightened  while  it  delighted.  Barrow  was  a  profound  the 
ological  reasoner,  and  yet  he  was  a  man  of  marvellous  scope 
of  imagination.  Hooker  was  the  most  masterful  of  them  all, 
and  who  doubts  that  his  immortal  work  was  made  the  more 
immortal  by  the  gorgeousness  of  the  imagination  that  glows 
and  burns  through  all  its  pages. 

Mr.  Pinkney  was  accustomed  to  sound  all  the  depths  of 
the  subjects  he  investigated  and  discussed.  Superficiality  he 
detested, — a  false  and  spurious  pretence  to  learning  he  ab 
horred, — and  yet  he  could  indulge  at  times  in  passages  of 
such  inimitable  beauty  and  power,  so  natural  and  artistically 
woven  into  the  thread  of  his  argument,  that  you  could  scarce 
discover  where  they  began  or  ended.  They  seemed,  as  indeed 
they  did,  to  grow  out  of  the  subject,  to  be  an  essential  ele 
ment  in  it,  the  outbursting  flower  from  the  parent  stem,  the 
living  germ  on  the  thrifty  and  vigorous  plant.  No  one  held 
in  greater  abhorrence  or  more  severely  reprobated,  as  will  be 
seen  in  his  own  rich  criticism  on  political  sketches,  what 
might  be  called  a  sickly  sentimentalism  of  style,  or  an  ex 
travagant  and  irregular  indulgence  of  fancy.  Perspicuity 


LIFE    OF   WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  97 

was  the  thing  of  primary  importance  in  his  estimation.  He 
allowed  nothing  to  darken  or  obscure  his  meaning.  His  fig 
ures  were  never  crowded  together,  or  jumbled  up  in  motley 
confusion.  They  were  never  far-fetched  or  unnatural.  Ex 
quisite  taste  guided  the  helm,  and  the  imagination  in  its 
richest  glow  was  ever  obedient  to  the  pilot.  He  never  used 
it  for  mere  ornament.  He  used  it  as  the  handmaid  of  reason. 
Force  and  appropriateness  of  diction  and  simplicity  of  illus 
tration  were  the  chosen  vehicles  of  his  thoughts.  Strength 
made  beautiful,  when  the  occasion  called  for  it,  gave  a  pecu 
liar  fascination  and  nerve  to  his  style.  Thought,  however, 
always  predominated  over  expression.  Imagination  in  its 
highest  and  purest  form  occupied  in  all  his  discussions  the 
place  of  an  uncurbed,  unrestrained,  artificial  fancy.  To  con 
vince,  not  dazzle,  was  his  high  object ;  and  yet  from  the  native 
splendor  of  his  mind,  he  insensibly  dazzled  in  the  very  act 
of  convincing. 

His  style  of  argument  on  legal  questions  was  peculiar  to 
himself,  founded  on  no  particular  model.  It  was  original 
and  striking.  In  many  discussions  before  the  Supreme  Court, 
those  peculiar  powers  were  conspicuously  displayed.  I  will 
mention  but  two,  the  Bank  case  and  the  Nereide ;  and  I 
cite  these  two,  because  while  in  themselves  of  deepest  mag 
nitude,  I  am  enabled  to  review  a  criticism  of  Mr.  Legare  of 
South  Carolina  on  the  former,  and  an  animadversion  of  Mr. 
Phillips,  the  Irish  barrister,  in  his  life  of  Curran,  on  an  inci 
dent  connected  with  the  latter.  The  array  of  counsel  in  the 
Bank  case  was  truly  splendid.  By  the  side  of  Pinkney  stood 
Webster  and  Wirt,  "  the  Gothic  and  Corinthian "  pillar ; 
opposed  to  them  were  Martin,  Hopkinson  and  Walter  Jones 
— the  last  named,  the  connecting  link  that  binds  the  past  to 
us,  a  man  of  the  rarest  powers  of  eloquence,  and  the  pro- 
foundest  powers  of  reasoning.  It  was  not  possible  for  six 
such  minds  to  be  brought  into  such  stirring  proximity,  with 
out  the  keenest  intellectual  rivalry.  The  theme  was  worthy 


98  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

of  the  men;  and  the  scene  of  the  conflict  worthy  of  both. 
It  was  in  this  bright  array  of  talent,  that  Mr.  Pinkney  rose 
to  conclude  the  argument ;  and  although  he  was  three  days 
in  the  discussion,  Judge  Story  tells  us  that  it  was  "  worth 
a  journey  from  Salem  to  hear  it." 

Mr.  Legare  pronounces  a  rather  dogmatic  opinion  on  the 
merits  of  the  argument.  He  jeers  Mr.  Pinkney  for  not  go 
ing  beyond  the  English  text-books,  and  taunts  him  for  not 
going  more  deeply  into  the  subject  than  Dr.  Blackstone.  It 
almost  excites  a  smile  to  hear  such  a  charge  brought  against 
one  who  stood,  in  his  day,  the  very  embodiment  of  legal 
learning  and  patient  research.  Our  surprise  is  increased, 
because  of  this  very  speech  Justice  Story  thus  writes  (vol.  I. 
page  325)  :  "I  never  in  my  whole  life  heard  a  greater  speech. 
He  spoke  like  a  great  statesman  and  patriot,  and  sound  con 
stitutional  lawyer — all  the  cobwebs  of  sophistry  and  meta 
physics  about  State  rights  and  State  sovereignty  he  brushed 
away  with  a  mighty  besom/' 

Mr.  Legare  does  not  do  Mr.  Pinkney's  argument  in  that 
cause  full  and  ample  justice.  He  says  that  Mr.  Pinkney 
"  began  his  argument  by  declaring  that  he  did  not  consider 
the  constitutionality  of  the  Bank  as  an  open  question,  because 
it  had  been  assumed  by  Congress  and  acquiesced  in  for  thirty 
years."  Let  us  now  look  into  the  report  in  Mr.  Wheaton; 
and  see  how  the  case  really  stands.  After  a  most  admirable 
and  masterly  discussion  of  the  powers  of  the  State  and 
General  Governments,  Mr.  Pinkney  contended,  that  the  ques 
tion  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  Bank  was  to  be  settled  on 
authority  and  principle.  "  The  constitution  acts  on  the  peo 
ple  by  means  of  powers  communicated  directly  from  the  peo 
ple.  No  State  in  its  corporate  capacity  ratified  it,  but  it 
was  proposed  for  adoption  to  popular  conventions.  It  springs 
from  the  people  precisely  as  the  State  constitutions  spring 
from  the  people,  and  acts  on  them  in  a  similar  manner.  The 
federal  powers  are  just  as  sovereign  as  those  of  the  States. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  99 

The  constitutionality  of  the  establishment  of  the  Bank,  as  one 
of  the  necessary  means  to  carry  into  effect  the  authority  vested 
in  the  General  Government,  is  no  longer  an  open  question.  It 
has  been  long  since  settled  by  decisions  of  the  most  revered 
authority,  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial.  A  legislative 
construction  in  a  doubtful  case,  persevered  in  for  a  course  of 
years,  ought  to  be  binding  on  the  court.  This  however  is 
not  a  question  of  construction  merely,  but  of  political  neces 
sity,  on  which  Congress  must  decide.  The  members  of  the 
convention,  who  framed  the  constitution,  passed  into  the 
first  Congress  by  which  the  new  government  was  organized. 
They  must  have  understood  their  own  work.  They  declared 
that  the  constitution  gave  to  Congress  the  power  of  incorpo 
rating  a  bank.  It  is  an  historical  fact  of  great  importance 
in  this  discussion,  that  amendments  to  the  constitution  were 
actually  proposed,  in  order  to  guard  against  the  establishment 
of  commercial  monopolies.  The  legislative  precedent  estab 
lished  in  1791  has  been  followed  up  by  a  series  of  acts  of 
Congress,  all  conferring  the  authority." 

It  was  not  the  mere  assumption  by  Congress  of  the  power, 
but  the  settlement  of  the  question  by  the  most  revered 
authorities,  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial,  upon  which 
Mr.  Pinkney  relied  in  the  discussion  of  that  great  cause  ;  and 
that,  too,  in  a  doubtful  case  of  construction.  The  report  of 
the  cause  may  be  found  in  Wheaton's  reports,  vol.  4,  Febru 
ary  term,  1819.  And  whoever  desires  to  test  the  value  of 
Mr.  Legare's  strictures  need  only  turn  to  Mr.  Pinkney's  ar 
gument,  where  he  will  find,  even  in  the  skeleton  gleanings 
of  the  accomplished  reporter,  one  of  the  ablest  and  most 
unanswerable  expositions  of  the  great  constitutional  question, 
which  has  since  been  exhumed  by  the  refined  metaphysicians 
of  South  Carolina  to  agitate  and  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
Union,  but  with  no  other  result  than  their  own  chagrin  and 
disappointment.  It  is  sufficient  to  remind  the  reader  of 
Mr.  Legare's  critique,  that  the  reasonings  of  this  speech 


100  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

upon  the  principles  of  constitutional  law  involved,  were  en 
dorsed  by  the  Story s  and  Marshall s  of  this  land ;  and  in 
grafted  on  the  statute  books  of  the  court,  though  not  deeper 
than  Dr.  Blackstone.  Judge  Marshall's  opinion  gives  a  judi 
cial  clothing  to  many  points  of  Pinkney' s  argument. 

I  regret  the  necessity  of  being  compelled  to  notice  the 
review  in  question,  because  Mr.  Legard  is  not  now  alive  ; 
but  at  the  time  he  wrote  it  the  voice  of  Pinkney  had  been 
hushed  in  death,  and  his  name  was  inscribed  on  the  cold 
marble. 

The  speech  on  the  Nereide,  though  not  so  successful  with 
the  court,  was  a  splendid  specimen  of  forensic  power.  It 
has  been  long  before  the  public,  though  in  mutilated  form 
and  garbled  extracts,  and  they  can  judge  of  it  for  them 
selves. 

I  will  be  excused  for  pausing  a  moment,  while  I  examine 
a  statement  made  by  Mr.  Phillips  in  his  life  of  Curran,  of  a 
collision  between  Mr.  Emrnet  and  Mr.  Pinkney  in  the  cause 
of  the  Mary  and  that  of  the  Nereide,  which  is  wide  of  the 
truth.  Speaking  of  Mr.  Pinkney' s  assault  he  says,  "  Em 
met's  demeanor  was  such  in  noticing  it,  that  shame  extorted 
next  day  from  his  defeated  adversary  a  eulogium  which  he 
doubtless  estimated  at  what  it  was  worth,"  and  then  he  puts 
into  Mr.  Emmet's  mouth  the  following  language  :  "I  know 
not  by  what  name  arrogance  and  presumption  may  be  called 
on  this  side  of  the  water,  but  I  am  sure  he  never  could  have  ac 
quired  those  manners  in  the  polite  circles  of  Europe  which 
he  had  long  frequented  as  a  public  minister/'  He  refers  for 
authority  to  Madden's  lives  of  United  Irishmen.  By  parti 
cular  examination,  I  find  the  affair  thus  stated  by  him: 
"  The  latter  (Mr.  Pinkney)  closed  his  argument  in  a  very 
important  cause,  and  with  his  characteristic  arrogance  alluded 
to  the  fact  of  Mr.  Emmet's  emigration  to  the  United  States. 
When  he  had  concluded  his  argument,  Mr.  Emmet  rose  and 
took  up  the  mode  and  manner  in  which  his  opponent  had 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  101 

treated  him.  He  said  lie  was  Mr.  Pinkney 's  equal  in  birth, 
rank,  and  connections,  and  he  was  not  his  enemy.  He  knew 
not  by  what  name  arrogance  and  presumption  might  be  called 
on  this  side  of  the  ocean,  but  sure  he  was  that  Mr.  Pinkney 
never  acquired  those  manners  in  the  polite  circles  of  Europe, 
which  he  had  frequented  as  a  public  minister^  Mr.  Pink 
ney  was  not  ready  at  retort,  and  made  no  reply.  But  a 
few  days  afterwards,  it  so  happened  that  Mr.  Emmet  and 
Mr.  Pinkney  were  again,  opposed  to  each  other  in  a  cause  of 
magnitude,  and  it  fell  to  Mr.  Emmet's  part  to  close  the 
argument,  who  was  determined  that  his  antagonist  should  be 
put  in  mind  of  his  former  deportment  and  expressions.  Pink 
ney  was  aware  of  the  thunderbolt  in  store,  and  took  the  op 
portunity  of  paying  to  Mr.  Emmet's  genius,  fame,  and  pri 
vate  worth,  the  highest  tribute  of  respect.  This  respect  was 
never  again  violated." — Madden' 's  Life  of  Thomas  A.  Emmet. 
He  added  further — "  When  Mr.  Emmet  rose  out  of  his  place 
as  before  stated,  Chief  Justice  Marshall  indicated  great  un 
easiness,  thinking  that  something  unpleasant  might  be  the  re 
sult.  Mr.  Justice  Livingston  remarked  in  a  whisper, '  Let  him 
go  on ;  I  will  answer  that  he  says  nothing  rude  or  improper/ 
With  this,  as  well  as  the  result,  the  Chief  Justice  was  satis 
fied."  Mr.  Phillips  gives  Madden  as  his  authority,  and  Mad 
den  makes  his  statement,  supported  by  not  so  much  as  a 
shadow  of  authority.  Mr.  Phillips  improves  upon  his  author 
ity,  and  speaks  of  Mr.  Pinkney  as  a  defeated  adversary. 
Justice  Story  witnessed  the  first  competition  of  those  two 
illustrious  men  in  the  highest  court  of  the  Union  :  and  so 
did  Mr.  Wheaton.  We  have  their  evidence  in  the  case.  In 
the  first  cause,  that  of  the  Mary,  in  which  Mr.  Pinkney  in 
dulged  in  some  warmth  of  expression,  justified  as  he  at  the 
time  thought  by  the  too  free  strictures  of  Mr.  Emmet  on  one 
of  his  clients,  so  far  from  being  the  routed  champion  Mr. 
Phillips  would  represent,  Justice  Story,  who  sat  in  the  cause, 
tells  us  in  his  published  sketch  of  Mr.  Emmet,  that  Mr. 


102  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

Pinkney  "  won  an  easy  victory,  and  pressed  his  advantages 
with  vast  dexterity,  and,  as  Mr.  Emmet  thought,  with  some 
what  the  display  of  triumph."  So  much  for  one  of  the  as 
sertions  of  Mr.  Phillips  made  professedly  on  authority,  and 
yet  unsustained  by  his  own  authority,  and  disproved  by  an 
other.  In  the  case  of  the  Nereide,  in  which  Mr.  Emmet 
delivered  a  most  masterly  speech,  Justice  Story  informs  us 
that  Mr.  Emmet  began  by  paying  a  generous  tribute  to  the 
talents  and  acquirements  of  his  opponent,  whom  fame  and 
fortune  had  followed  both  in  Europe  and  America.  It  is 
impossible,  at  this  late  day,  to  state  what  Mr.  Emmet  in 
reality  said.  But  one  thing  is  certain,  the  representations 
of  excited  partisans  must  be  received  with  great  distrust ; 
especially  where  the  recorded  statement  of  so  distinguished 
a  witness  as  Justice  Story  or  Mr.  Wheaton  gives  it  no  man 
ner  of  countenance.  Mr.  Pinkney  made  the  amende  honor 
able,  and  avowed  his  regret  that  he  should  have  indulged  in 
a  seemingly  unkind  criticism  upon  his  illustrious  opponent, 
which  was  "  deepened  by  the  forbearance  and  urbanity  of  his 
reply."  Is  it  credible  that  Mr.  Pinkney  would  publicly,  in 
the  presence  of  the  court,  where  language  so  grossly  insulting 
as  that  put  into  Mr.  Emmet's  lips  must  have  been  used,  if 
used  at  all,  have  spoken  of  the  forbearance  and  urbanity  of 
a  reply  which  had  just  branded  him  with  insolence  and  pre 
sumption  and  ill-breeding  ?  Will  any  one  (who  was  at  all 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Pinkney,  or  the  court  of  which  Judge 
Marshall  was  the  honored  head)  believe  that  such  common 
billingsgate  abuse  was  either  endured'  by  him  or  the  court. 
I  have  far  too  much  respect  for  Mr.  Emmet  to  believe  that 
his  lips  were  so  employed.  I  think  the  statement  sufficiently 
disproved  by  Mr.  Emmet's  high  praise  of  Mr.  Pinkney  as  re 
corded  by  Story ;  and  the  terms  of  Pinkney's  own  apology, 
an  apology  which  does  him  infinite  credit,  whose  eloquence 
is  only  equalled  by  its  magnanimity;  as  well  as  the  inherent 
probabilities  of  the  case.  As  to  the  insinuations  of  Mr.  Mad- 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  103 

den,  that  Mr.  Pinkney  was  induced  by  fear  to  disarm  Mr. 
Emmet  of  the  thunderbolt  of  vengeance  by  an  unfelt  and 
hypocritical  profession  of  admiration,  or  that  he  was  not 
ready  at  retort,  it  may  pass  current  among  foreigners,  though 
a  mere  unproved  assertion  ;  but  where  Mr.  Pinkney  was 
known,  it  will  be  read  with  a  smile  ^for  he  was  afraid,  phy 
sically  or  intellectually,  of  no  man.  To  use  his  own  expres 
sion  to  Lord  Wellesley,  which  an  Englishman  should  be  the 
last  to  forget,  he  neither  sought  nor  shunned  discussions,  of 
which  the  tendency  is  merely  to  irritate.  In  the  discussion 
on  the  Mary  he  had  met  with  nothing  to  excite  his  fears,  for 
Story  represents  him  as  a  victor;  and  in  the  Nereide, 
although  he  failed  to  carry  conviction  to  the  court,  he  carried 
one  of  the  brightest  lights  of  that  court  with  him,  and  based 
his  argument  upon  principles,  that  were  almost  simultane 
ously  sanctioned  by  the  highest  judicial  wisdom  of  England, 
and  delivered  a  speech  which,  even  in  its  present  mutilated 
form,  will  ever  rank  among  the  finest  specimens  of  forensic 
eloquence  and  power. 

Since  writing  the  above,  my  attention  was  drawn  to  a 
passage  in  the  life  of  the  late  Jeremiah  Smith,  a  distinguished 
judge  of  New  Hampshire.  It  is  in  these  words  :  "  Judge 
Spencer  related  to  me  the  anecdote  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  attack 
on  Emmet  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
They  were  on  opposite  sides  in  an  important  cause,  and  one 
which  Mr.  Pinkney  had  much  at  heart,  and  was  desirous  of 
winning  by  fair  or  unfair  means.  In  the  course  of  the  argu 
ment,  he  travelled  out  of  the  cause  to  make  observations 
personal  and  extremely  offensive  on  Mr.  Emmet,  with  a  view 
probably  of  irritating  and  weakening  his  reply.  When  the 
argument  was  through,  Mr.  Emmet  said  perhaps  he  ought 
not  to  notice  the  remarks  of  the  opposite  counsel.  Then  fol 
lows  pretty  much  the  above  version,  save  these  words:  *"  He 
would  only  say  that  he  had  been  informed  that  the  learned 
gentleman  had  filled  the  highest  office  his  country  could  be- 


104  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

stow  at  the  court  of  St.  James.  He  was  sure  he  had  never 
learned  his  breeding  in  that  school.  The  court,  the  bar,  and 
audience  were  delighted." 

This,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  not  published  until  after 
Mr.  Pinkney's  death.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  a  gratuitous 
and  unproved  charge,  that  Mr.  Pinkney  was  bent  upon  gain 
ing  the  cause  of  the  Mary  by  fair  or  unfair  means — a  charge 
made  by  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Emmet  without  one 
tittle  of  evidence,  and  as  I  shall  presently  show,  in  the  face 
of  evidence  to  the  contrary,  and  in  violation  of  the  facts  in 
the  case.  In  the  second  place,  there  is  the  imputation  of  a 
low  and  vulgar  motive,  at  which  every  right-minded  man  re 
coils,  upon  bare  probability,  "  with  a  view  probably  of 'irritat 
ing  and  weakening  the  reply."  The  animus  of  this  anecdote 
is  its  own  best  and  surest  condemnation.  The  charge  of 
unfairness,  and  the  imputation  of  such  a  motive  upon  mere 
probability,  when  brought  against  one  whom  Justice  Story 
represents  as  of  the  most  peerless  character  at  the  bar,  are 
strange  deeds  in  one,  whose  office  it  was  to  judge  righteous 
judgment  and  base  assertions,  touching  the  illustrious  dead, 
upon  solid  and  substantial  facts.  The  motive  attributed  to 
Mr.  Pinkney  is  not  only  untrue,  but  impossible  to  be  true. 
Mr.  Emmet's  argument  was  concluded,  and  could  not  there 
fore  be  weakened  by  irritation.  Mr.  Wheaton,  who  was  pre 
sent,  gives  us  the  true  motive  ;  and  Justice  Story  conclusively 
proves,  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  a  resort  to  any  thing 
like  trick,  if  indeed  Mr.  Pinkney  were  capable  of  it,  as  he 
won  by  argument  an  easy  victory.  It  is  strange  that  Judge 
Story  tells  us  nothing  of  the  pleasure  with  which  he  listened 
to  language  far  too  coarse  to  have  ever  greeted  the  ear  of  such 
a  tribunal  as  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Union. 

I  am  not  to  defend  Mr.  Pinkney  in  what  he,  upon  re 
flection,  thought  proper  to  acknowledge  was  not  wholly  de 
fensible  ;  and  for  which  he  offered  a  full  and  gratuitous  public 
atonement.  But  when  reports,  extremely  prejudicial  to  the 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  105 

character  of  another,  are  circulated  after  his  death,  and  ac 
companied  by  gross  abuse  ;  it  is  surely  within  the  province 
of  a  biographer  to  sift  the  assertion,  and,  as  far  as  the 
evidence  will  admit,  disabuse  the  public  mind,  and  set  the 
matter  right.  A  breath  may  tarnish  the  mirror  of  a  peerless 
character,  if  suffered  to  remain  upon  it — and  no  one  has  a 
right  to  complain,  if  others  are  wounded  in  the  mere  sheer 
justice  of  rubbing  it  off. 

The  name  of  Thomas  A.  Emmet  recalls  many  thrilling 
reminiscences.      The   misfortunes  of  his   early  life,   which 
was  overhung   with  clouds,  imparted  a  melancholy  inter 
est  to  his   subsequent  illustrious  career.     A  man  of  rare 
eloquence  and  most  commanding  abilities,  he  lived  to  shed 
an  additional  lustre  upon  old  Ireland  ;  for  although  his  soft 
and  persuasive  oratory,  and  the  breathings  of  his  pure  and 
enlightened  patriotism  were  hushed  on  the  banks  of  Killar- 
ney,  and  he  was  compelled  to  fly  the  Ireland  he  loved,  and 
seek  and  find  a  shelter  beneath  the  outspread  wings  of  the 
American  eagle  ;  he  enjoyed  the  enviable  pleasure  of  know 
ing  that  the  echoes  of  his  fame  became  familiar   sounds  in 
every  Irish  homestead.     Casting  his  eye  over  the  names  of 
her   illustrious   sons,    her   Goldsmiths,    Burkes,  Sheridans, 
Grattans,  Cumins,  and   his  own  most  gifted  brother  (the 
man  whose  epitaph  will  yet  be  written);  he  could,  with 
something  of  the  exultation  of  patriotic  pride,  console  him 
self  with  the  belief  that  he  was  not  unmindful  of  their  glory. 
If  in  the  excitement  of  debate,  there  was  a  momentary  jar 
between  Ireland's  favored  son  and  Maryland's  most  admired, 
it  was  a  jar  in  which  neither  was  wholly  blameless,  and  each 
triumphed  by  sacrificing  obstinate  self-pride  in  a  cordial  and 
mutual  recognition   and  acknowledgment  of  all   that  was 
truly  great  in  the  other.     I  leave  to  malevolence  on  either 
side  the  waters,  the  gratification  of  parading  forth  infirmities 
that  are  common  to  us  all,  and  overlooking  virtues  that  but 
few  possess ;  while  the  mo»  pleasing  and  grateful  task  is 


106  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

left  me,  of  showing  how  the  incidental  misunderstanding  be 
tween  them  was  adjusted  without  dishonor  to  either. 

^dVTr.  Pinkney  possessed  an  eminently  legal  mind  ;  quick, 
keen,  discriminating,  incredibly  patient  in  investigation,  and 
endowed  with  extraordinary  powers  of  analysis.  He  studied 
Law  as  a  science,  and  mastered  it  in  all  its  departments. 
The  whole  domain  of  the  common  law  was  as  familiar  to  his 
mind  and  thought,  as  the  soil  of  his  birth  ;  while  the  great 
principles  of  international  law,  and  the  not  less  imposing 
principles  of  our  own  august  constitution,  were  thoroughly 
explored  and  comprehended  by  him.  He  was  accustomed  to 
refresh  himself  at  the  well  springs,  and  drew  his  legal  know 
ledge  from  the  great  original  sources,  the  masters  whose  ex 
positions  are  decisions.  Nothing  of  importance  escaped  his 
notice.  Thoroughness  and  comprehensiveness  combined  to 
make  him  singularly  learned  in  the  Law.  lie  never  engaged 
in  a  cause  without  looking  carefully  and  calmly  into  its 
merits,  and  sifting  them  through  all  their  intricacies,  and 
adjusting  with  the  utmost  precision  the  law  to  the  facts. 
Once  in  the  cause,  he  was  perfect  master  of  the  ground.  No 
error  committed  by  those  with  whom  he  was  called  to  grap 
ple,  escaped  his  eager  and  eagle-eyed  observation.  Cool  and 
cautious,  he  surveyed  the  whole  field,  and  discovered  at  a 
glance  where  were  the  weak  and  where  were  the  strong  points 
of  the  assault  and  the  defence.  His  own  line  of  argument  was 
most  skilfully  laid,  and  his  authorities  marshalled  with  con 
summate  judgment,  fetorysays  he  never  pressed  weak  points 
upon  the  court,  and  therein  he  showed  his  good  sterling  com 
mon  sense  and  high  regard  for  professional  propriety.  He  ex 
pended  his  whole  strength  upon  the  really  strong  points  in  the 
case,  and  warred  with  the  weapons  of  a  giant.  Investigation, 
deep,  searching,  laborious  investigation,  preceded  and  accom 
panied  all  his  discussions  before  the  court.  *His  habit  of  careful 
and  diligent  preparation  (from  which  he  never  departed,  and 
which  in  reality  constituted  ofle  of  the  marvels  of  his  life), 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  107 

gave  rise  to  the  idea  that  his  mind  was  slow  in  its  operation,  and 
that  his  speeches  were  written  out  before  they  were  delivered, 
and  that  he  was  deficient  in  what  are  called  the  powers  of  ex 
temporaneous  debate — an  idea  the  farthest  possible  removed 
from  the  fact.  Those  who  were  accustomed  to  listen  to  his 
legal  arguments,  most  elaborately  prepared,  were  not  un- 
frequently  astonished  at  his  prompt  responses,  when  consult 
ed  as  an  amicus  curice,  upon  points  suddenly  sprung  iipon 
the  court,  which  resembled  the  gushings  forth  from  an  over 
flowing  fountain,  and  were  not  more  characterized  by  lofty 
eloquence,  than  wonderful  precision  and  exactness,  j  He  who 
never  presumed  to  present  himself  before  a  court,  but  after 
the  most  patient  and  profound  examination  of  the  case,  in 
all  its  bearings,  could,  when  the  occasion  called  for  it,  pour 
forth  his  accurate  and  methodized  legal  learning  with  a  force 
and  precision  truly  wonderful.  Those  who  were  privileged 
to  listen  to  his  arguments  continued  hour  after  hour,  have 
testified  to  the  fact,  that  the  scintillations  of  his  genius, 
emitted  in  the  heat  and  excitement  of  debate,  whether  before 
the  court  or  the  Senate,  possessed  a  beauty  and  a  brilliancy 
that  were  never  afterwards  gathered  up.  So  far  from  being 
carefully  written  out  beforehand,  they  could  not  have  been 
written  at  all.  They  were,  to  use  the  poetic  language  of 
another,  like  dew-drops  that  hang  on  the  petals  of  flowers, 
which  cannot  be  gathered.  Mr.  Pinkney  possessed  all  the 
peculiar  qualities  of  a  powerful  extemporaneous  debater,  viz., 
unlimited  command  of  language,  inexhaustible  fund  of  know 
ledge,  a  powerful  and  retentive  memory,  and  admirable  self- 
possession.  But  he  valued  his  reputation  too  highly;  he 
too  much  respected  the  court  and  the  audience,  to  go  forth 
to  the  discussion  without  the  last  finish  of  the  most  exact 
and  minute  investigation.  The  writer  of  this  memoir  has 
heard  several  anecdotes  of  an  authentic  character,  illustra 
tive  of  his  wonderful  quickness  of  comprehension ; — one  of 
which  he  begs  permission  to  mention,  as  it  came  to  him 


108  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

direct.  It  does  honor  to  another  of  the  distinguished  sons  of 
Maryland,  who  was  himself  a  most  eloquent  and  powerful 
advocate.  Mr.  *  *  *  had  a  case  to  argue,  and  Mr.  Pinkney 
was  employed  as  associate  counsel  in  the  upper  court.  Dur 
ing  the  consultation,  in  giving  a  history  of  the  cause,  one 
point  was  mentioned  as  of  secondary  importance.  As  soon 
as  Mr.  *  *  *  concluded,  Mr.  Pinkney  said,  "  Do  you  take 
the  points  you  prefer,  and  I  will  see  what  I  can  do  with  the 
one  you  reject."  This  excited  curiosity,  and  when  the  argu 
ment  of  Mr.  Pinkney  opened,  his  professional  colleague  re 
mained  ^o  see  what  could  be  made  of  it ;  and  very  soon  dis 
covered  that  it  was  the  very  gist  of  the  cause. 

And  yet,  as  I  have  shown,  his  quickness  of  comprehen 
sion  never  betrayed  him  into  indolence.  Tlis  perfect  com 
mand  of  the  most  appropriate,  beautiful,  and  forcible  diction, 
never  surprised  him  into  carelessness  of  preparation.  His 
intimate  familiarity  with  the  legal  lore  of  the  past,  and  the 
enlightened  decisions  of  the  present,  never  tempted  him 
into  a  confident  presumption  of  authorities.  His  quickness 
of  perception,  compass  of  information,  and  brilliancy  of 
genius,  all  disciplined  by  the  severest  and  most  constantly 
sustained  study,  gave  him  the  pre-eminence  he  maintained 
at  the  bar,  and  made  him  the  wonderful  legal  logician  the 
North  American  Keview  pronounced  him  to  be. 

Mr.  Pinkney  entertained  the  most  exalted  idea  of  pro 
fessional  honor.  There  is  a  trifling  circumstance  mentioned 
in  a  letter,  addressed  by  him  to  Mr.  Kidgely  of  Maryland, 
now  in  my  possession,  which,  as  it  sets  forth  this  trait  of 
character  in  a  very  striking  light,  I  beg  leave  to  copy  : 

"  October  22,  1821. 

"  SIR  : — Since  the  writing  of  my  letter  of  the  20th,  in 
answer  to  yours  of  the  16th,  Mr.  Purviance  and  Mr.  Wil 
liams  have,  in  your  name  and  behalf,  offered  me  a  compen 
sation  (a  check  of  one  thousand  dollars),  in  consequence  of 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  109 

my  known  determination  to  be  neutral  on  your  demand  in 
the  case  of  the  Union  Bank  against  you.  But  I  could  not, 
consistently  with  my  notions  of  what  I  owe  to  my  own  cha 
racter  and  the  honor  of  the  Bar,  accept  your  fee,  and  there 
fore  I  refused  it  (as  doubtless  they  have  informed  you),  the 
moment  it  was  tendered  to  me. 

"  I  am  the  general  counsel  of  the  Union  Bank,  and  had, 
moreover,  undertaken  for  it  this  cause  in  particular,  having 
no  idea  that  after  the  return  of  your  retainer,  with  your 
own  previous  assent,  there  was,  or  could  be  any  objection  to 
my  doing  so  ;  or  that  I  was  expected,  without  any  recom 
pense,  to  decline  the  duties  of  my  profession  altogether  in 
your  cause,  and  in  every  other  that  should  involve  the 
same  questions  ;  and  if,  from  considerations  of  delicacy,  I 
retire  from  the  fulfilment  of  my  engagement  with  the  Union 
Bank,  I  will  not  consent  to  be  paid  for  it  in  any  shape  or 
manner  by  their  opponent,  or  by  any  body  else.  My  conduct 
on  this  occasion  would  cease  to  be  worthy  of  the  approbation 
of  my  brethren  and  the  public  if  I  suffered  my  neutrality  to 
be  purchased,  or  to  appear  to  be  purchased,  or  in  any  way 
to  be  compensated  to  the  prejudice  of  those  who  have  hon 
ored  me  with  their  confidence,  and  who,  with  their  accus 
tomed  liberality,  will,  I  am  sure,  excuse  me  for  abandoning 
their  cause  upon  disinterested  motives  under  the  circum 
stances  in  which  I  am  unexpectedly  placed. 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"WILLIAM  PINKNEY." 

t 

This  letter  speaks  volumes.  It  exhibits  a  refinement  of 
delicacy,  and  a  nice  sense  of  honor  and  propriety,  that  must 
receive  universal  commendation.  It  is  the  more  beautiful, 
because  it  was  a  deed  done  in  secret,  and  now  only  meets 
the  public  eye  through  the  kind  consideration  of  those  who 
survive  him,  thirty  years  and  more  after  he  has  passed  from 
the  sight  of  men. 


110  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

Four  years  after  Mr.  Pinkney's  death,  William  Wirt 
thus  wrote  of  him  :  "If  he  shall  have  a  biographer  of  ge 
nius,  he  will,  hy  preserving  the  real  echoes  of  his  fame,  do 
more  for  his  immortality  than  Pinkney  could  have  done  for 
himself." — Vol.  II,  page  197.  Those  echoes  of  his  fame  (the 
oracular  decisions  of  a  Marshall,  a  Story,  and  a  Wheaton), 
can  never  die  away  ;  and,  as  long  as  they  live,  Pinkney's 
name  will  live  with  them.  But  still  we  must  ever  regret 
(Mr.  Wirt's  judgment  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding), 
that  his  speeches  could  not  have  been  preserved  as  they 
were  delivered ;  since  Wheaton  and  Story,  both  accom 
plished  scholars  and  fastidious  judges  of  style  and  matter, 
have  told  us  that  they  lost  in  every  effort  to  report  them. 

May  we  not  justly  say  of  him, — "  Qui  consulta  patrum, 
qui  leges  juraque  servat  ?  " 


LIFE   OF  WILLIAM  PKSTKNEY.  Ill 


WIET  AND  PINKNEY. 

JUSTICE  to  the  character  and  memory  of  Mr.  Pinkney  makes 
it  my  duty  to  devote  a  few  pages  to  the  consideration  of  a 
portion  of  the  memoir  of  Mr.  Wirt,  written  by  the  Hon.  J. 
P.  Kennedy,  a  gentleman  of  literary  distinction,  well  known 
to  the  American  people.  Holding  Mr.  Wirt's  reputation, 
as  a  profound  lawyer  and  brilliant  orator,  in  very  high  es 
teem,  and  recognizing  in  him  a  gentleman  of  varied  accom 
plishments,  an  ornament  of  the  State  of  his  birth  and  the 
country  at  large,  I  cannot  but  regret  that  his  biographer 
has  forced  upon  me  this  necessity.  Fault-finding  is  always 
irksome  and  distasteful,  but  especially  so  where  there  is 
much  to  commend,  as  both  well  and  wisely  written  ;  and, 
if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  :that  another  distinguished  name 
in  Maryland  might  suffer,  I  should  pass  it  by  in  silence. 

I  do  not  animadvert  upon  this  work  merely  because  of 
the  free  expression  of  Mr.  Kennedy's  own  opinion  respecting 
the  talents  and  acquirements  of  Mr.  Pinkney ;  or  the  inser 
tion  of  the  still  freer  criticisms  of  the  illustrious  subject  of 
his  biography.  They  both  had  a  right  to  form  their  esti 
mate  of  Mr.  Pinkney,  and  then  publish  it  to  the  world. 
True  it  is,  as  I  think  I  shall  be  able  to  show  conclusively, 
the  exercise  of  that  right  was  singularly  unfortunate  ;  as 
the  tone  and  temper  of  the  criticisms  will  be  found,  upon 
examination,  to  reflect  but  little  credit  upon  either  the 
judgment  or  liberality  of  their  authors.  They  mar  the 
work,  and  are  a  spot  on  the  disk  of  one  of,  Maryland's  bright 
orbs.  The  insertion  of  those  criticisms  was  exceedingly  in- 


112  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

discreet.  But  indiscretion  is  no  breach  of  the  biographer's 
privilege ;  nor  is  it  all  of  which  I  feel  myself  entitled  to 
complain  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Kennedy  in  this  portion  of  his 
biography.  He  has  thought  proper  to  publish  to  the  world 
letters,  in  which  allusion  is  made  to  conversations  that  pur 
port  to  have  passed  between  Mr.  Pinkney  and  Mr.  Wirt 
alone  (detrimental  to  the  reputation  of  the  former),  upon 
Mr.  Wirt's  sole  authority,  long  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Pink 
ney,  and  at  a  time  when  it  is  impossible  to  offer  either  ex 
planation  or  a  denial  of  their  correctness.  He  has  done 
more.  He  has  woven  a  portion  of  those  letters  (the  most 
offensive)  into  the  very  typography  of  the  text,  and  thus 
given  them  his  most  solemn  and  deliberate  endorsement. 

What  man  would  be  willing  to  have  his  occasional  re 
marks  (they  might  have  been  playfully  made)  thirty  years 
after  his  decease,  when  he  is  totally  incapable  of  defending 
himself,  chronicled  to  the  world  by  his  own  personal  rival  ? 
Who  would  be  willing  to  be  thus  personally  judged  ?  With 
out  intentional  misrepresentation  (which  I  would  be  the 
last  to  impute  to  Mr.  Wirt),  we  all  know  how  easily  a  thing 
may  be  changed  by  a  change  in  the  tone  and  look,  and  how 
easily  our  own  peculiar  temperament  at  the  time  may  give 
a  coloring  and  bias  to  things  in  themselves  perfectly  trivial 
and  unimportant.  Trifles  are  not  unfrequently  magnified 
into  some  grave  offence  against  the  rules  <tf  good  taste  and 
high-toned  bearing  by  a  morbid  and  diseased  sensitiveness, 
in  moments  of  temporary  excitement,  when  the  power  of  a 
rival  is  felt.  Impressions  made  at  such  a  time,  especially 
where  we  ourselves  are  the  party  directly  concerned,  are  not 
to  be  trusted.  If  there  lyp  any  principle  of  justice  or  pro 
priety  clearly  established,  it  is  this :  that  all  repetition  of 
conversations  which  occur  in  the  privacy  of  personal  inter 
course,  reflecting  in  the  slightest  degree  on  another,  be  pub 
lished  in  his  lifetime,  or  else  be  consigned  to  the  tomb  of 
oblivion.  In  the  publication  of  those  letters  of  Mr.  Wirt 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  113 

which  contain  a  mere  intellectual  critique  on  Mr.  Pinkney, 
Mr.  Kennedy  has  been  singularly  unfortunate  ;  while  in  the 
publication  of  those  which  are  morally  condemnatory,  he 
has  been  unjust.  The  one  is  a  fair  subject  of  friendly  criti 
cism  in  return  ;  the  other,  a  clear  ground  of  impeachment. 

I  have  said,  that  a  careful  inspection  of  Mr.  Wirt's  criti 
cisms  of  Pinkney,  will  not  enhance  his  discrimination  as  a 
judge,  nor  his  magnanimity  as  a  rival.  Let  me  test  the 
soundness  of  this  assertion.  And  be  it  remembered  that  the 
biographer  has  opened  this  page  of  Mr.  Wirt's  life,  and  must 
therefore  bear  the  consequences  of  its  analysis.  On  page 
402  of  Vol.  I.  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Francis  W.  Gilmer,  dated 
April  1st.,  1816,  we  have  a  scathing  dissection  of  Mr.  Pink- 
ney's  mental  calibre. 

"  Teach  these  boys, — as  Pinkney  said  he  would  do, — '  a 
new  style  of  speaking/  But  let  it  be  a  better  one  than 
his ;  I  mean  his  solemn  style,  to  which,  in  Irish  phrase,  I  give 
the  back  of  my  hand.  If  that  be  a  good  style,  then  all  the 
models,  both  ancient  and  modern,  which  we  have  been  ac 
customed  to  contemplate  as  truly  great, — such  as  Crassus, 
Anthony,  Cicero,  the  prolocutors  of  the  Dialogue  c  De  causis 
corrupts  eloquentise/  Chatham,  Henry,  and  others, — not 
forgetting  ( Paul  Jones  and  old  Charon/ — are  all  pretenders. 
I  know  that  this  is  not  your  opinion.  But  I  was  near  him 
five  or  six  weeks,  and  wratched  him  narrowly.  He  has  noth 
ing  of  the  rapid  and  unerring  analysis  of  Marshall, — but  he 
has  in  lieu  of  it,  a  dogmatizing  absoluteness  of  manner  which 
passes  with  the  million, — which,  by-the-by,  includes  many 
more  than  we  should  at  first  suspect, — for  an  evidence  of 
power ;  and  he  has  acquired  with  those  around  him  a  sort  of 
papal  infallibility.  That  manner  is  a  piece  of  acting ;  it  is 
artificial,  as  you  may  see  by  the  wandering  of  his  eye,  and  is 
as  far  ivmoved  from  the  composed  confidence  of  enlightened 
certainty,  as  it  is  from  natural  modesty.  Socrates  confessed 
that  all  the  knowledge  he  had  been  able  to  acquire  seemed 
8 


114  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

only  to  convince  him  that  he  knew  nothing.  This  frankness 
is  one  of  the  most  characteristic  traits  of  a  great  mind.  Pink- 
ney  would  make  you  believe  that  he  knows  every  thing. 

"  — At  the  bar  he  is  despotic,  and  cares  as  little  for  his 
colleagues  or  adversaries  as  if  they  were  men  of  wood.  He 
has  certainly  much  the  advantage  of  any  of  them  in  forensic 
show.  Give  him  time — and  he  requires  not  much — and  he 
will  deliver  a  speech  which  any  man  might  be  proud  to  claim. 
You  will  have  good  materials,  very  well  put  together;  and 
clothed  in  a  costume  as  magnificent  as  that  of  Louis  XIV.  ; 
but  you  will  have  a  vast  quantity  of  false  fire,  besides  a  ve 
hemence  of  intonation,  for  which  you  >see  nothing  to  account 
in  the  character  of  the  thought.  His  arguments,  when  I 
heard  him,  were  such  as  would  have  occurred  to  any  good 
mind  of  the  profession.  It  was  his  mode  of  introducing, 
dressing  and  incorporating  them,  which  constituted  their 
chief  value — '  materiem  superabit  opus. ' ; 

This  was  not  a  hastily  formed  opinion.  It  was  the  result 
of  mature  reflection  and  close  personal  observation.  Consist 
ency  may  be  said  to  be  the  very  jewel  of  criticism.  Not 
that  I  would  intimate  that  our  views  may  not  be  altered  or 
modified  by  time  and  circumstances,  without  a  forfeiture  of 
our  title  to  respect  and  confidence.  But  the  criticism  of  to 
day  must  be  perfectly  consistent  with  itself,  to  make  it  in 
any  degree  valuable.  Where  is  the  consistency  of  this  crit 
icism  ?  "  Dogmatizing  absoluteness  of  manner"  not  power; 
"  forensic  show"  is  all  that  in  the  first  part  of  this  letter  he  is 
willing  to  concede  to  Mr.  Pinkney,  after  five  or  six  weeks'  close 
and  narrow  watching.  And  yet,  upon  short  notice  he  will 
deliver  a  speech  which  any  man  would  be  proud  to  claim ; 
and  still  after  all,  the  arguments  he  used,  when  Mr.  Wirt 
heard  him,  were  only  such  as  would  have  occurred  to  any 
good  mind  of  the  profession,  with  a  vast  deal  of  false  fire. 
Such  is  the  character  of  the  first  criticism  that  Wirt  passed 
upon  Pinkney ;  and  Mr.  Kennedy  has  deemed  it  wise  to  hand 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  115 

it  down  to  the  generation  following.  How  any  man,  who 
has  in  lieu  of  unerring  and  rapid  analysis,  a  dogmatizing  ab 
soluteness  of  manner,  which  is  not  power,  but  passes  with, 
the  weak-minded  million  for  an  evidence  of  power,  should  be 
able,  upon  short  preparation,  to  deliver  a  speech  which  any 
man  would  be  proud  to  claim ; — and  yet  only  stumble  upon 
such  arguments  as  would  occur  to  any  good  mind  of  the  pro 
fession,  characterized  with  a  vast  deal  of  false  fire,  is  a  re 
finement  of  distinction,  that  I  candidly  avow  I  cannot  pene 
trate.  This  criticism  destroys  itself.  It  was,  as  I  have 
shown,  not  hastily  formed,  and  cannot  therefore  plead  negli 
gence  or  haste  in  its  extenuation ;  and  although  essentially 
modified  in  after  years,  the  feeling  that  dictated  it  will  serve 
as  a  key  to  help  me  to  discover  the  true  source  of  Mr.  Wirt's 
strictures  upon  his  rival.  In  a  letter  to  Judge  Carr,  dated 
April  7th,  1816,  he  thus  writes  (Vol.  I.  p.  405)  : 

"  In  this  hopeless  situation  I  went  to  court,  to  try  the 
tug  of  war  with  the  renowned  Pinkney.  When  I  thought 
of  my  situation, — of  the  theatre  on  which  I  was  now  to  ap 
pear  for  the  first  time, — the  expectation  which  I  was  told 
was  excited,  and  saw  the  assembled  multitude  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen  from  every  quarter  of  the  Union,  you  may  guess 
my  feelings.  Had  I  been  prepared,  how  should  I  have  gloried 
in  that  theatre,  that  concourse,  and  that  adversary  !  As  it 
was,  my  dear  wife  and  children,  and  your  features,  look,  and 
sympathetic  voice  and  friendly  inquietude,  came  over  me 
like  evil  spirits.  To  be  sure,  these  considerations  gave  me  a 
sort  of  desperate,  ferocious,  bandit-like  resolution ;  but  what 
is  mere  brute  resolution  with  a  totally  denuded  intellect  ?  I 
gave,  indeed,  some  hits  which  produced  a  visible  and  ani 
mating  effect ;  but  my  courage  sank,  and  I  suppose  my  man 
ner  fell  under  the  conscious  imbecility  of  my  argument.  I 
was  comforted,  however,  by  finding  that  Pinkney  mended  the 
matter  very  little,  if  at  all. 

"  Had  the  cause  been  to  argue  over  again  on  the  next 


116  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

day,  I  could  have  shivered  him ;  for  his  discussion  revived 
all  my  forgotten  topics,  and,  as  I  lay  in  my  bed  on  the  fol 
lowing  morning,  arguments  poured  themselves  out  before  me 
as  from  a  cornucopia.  I  should  have  wept  at  the  considera 
tion  of  what  I  had  lost,  if  I  had  not  prevented  it  by  leaping 
out  of  bed,  and  beginning  to  sing  and  dance  like  a  maniac/' 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  that  this  letter  was  penned  but  six 
days  after  the  one  just  commented  on.  It  is  not  a  little  sur 
prising  that  dogmatizing  absoluteness  of  manner  and  foren 
sic  show  should  have  produced  such  a  state  of  feeling  at  the 
prospect  of  actual  collision.  Unfortunately  for  Mr.  Wirt, 
but  most  fortunately  for  his  antagonist,  the  bed,  not  the  forum, 
was  the  scene  of  this  hopeless  rout ;  and  Wirt  himself,  the 
graphic  narrator  of  the  shivering  effects  that  would  have 
followed  the  renewal  of  the  contest.  It  was  a  wonderful 
transition  from  the  imbecile  argument  to  the  teeming  cornu 
copia;  and  most  fortunate  for  Pinkney  was  it,  that  the 
bed,  being  a  non-conductor,  saved  him  from  the  shivering 
bolt  of  legal  eloquence  and  logic,  before  it  laid  him  low  in 
the  dust  of  the  dishonored  forum.  In  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Wirt, 
dated  April  7th,  1821  (Vol.  II.  p.  119),  Mr.  Wirt  thus 
wrote  : 

"  This  is  the  fourteenth  day  since  this  argument  was 
opened.  Pinkney,  before  he  began,  promised  to  speak  only 
two  hours  and  a  half.  He  has  now  spoken  two  days,  and  is, 
at  this  moment,  at  it  again  for  the  third  day.  You  will  be 
gratified  to  hear,  that  although  there  are  four  counsel  on  the 
same  side  with  me,  and  the  veteran  General  Harper, — 
hitherto  the  only  Maryland  rival  of  Pinkney, — among  them, 
yet  here  the  Attorney-General  is  regarded  as  his  chief  an 
tagonist,  and  the  comparison  made  by  the  court,  the  bar  and 
the  bystanders,  far  from  being  to  my  prejudice." 

All  this  may  have  been  so  in  point  of  fact  (but  there  are 
those  alive  who  have  heard  other  testimony  from  the  court, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  bar);  but  did  it  not  occur  to  Mr. 


LIFE   OP   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  117 

Kennedy,  that  other  less  interested  witnesses  would  more 
gracefully  and  properly  have  attested  the  fact,  and  that  the 
wise  words  of  Solomon  are  still,  as  they  ever  have  been,  the 
safest  and  best  to  follow?  Wirt  may  have  eclipsed  the 
veteran  Harper,  a  man  as  great  as  he  was  learned,  and  as 
lofty  in  spirit  as  he  was  ambitious  to  excel.  He  may  have 
eclipsed  Pinkney  in  this  cause.  But  the  learned  biographer 
will  pity,  if  he  does  not  excuse  our  incredulity,  until  he  has 
explained  to  us  how  the  opinion  of  the  court,  the  bar  and  the 
bystanders,  was  gauged.  Wirt  doubtless  thought  as  he 
wrote,  and  his  friends  may  have  told  him  so  ;  but  friends 
are  not  always  impartial,  neither  are  they  infallible.  Our 
own  opinions  under  such  circumstances  are  surely  as  little  to 
be  trusted.  Mr.  Kennedy  seems  to  have  had  a  sort  of  pre 
sentiment,  that  the  insertion  of  such  a  letter  might  be  open 
to  criticism  ;  and  bespeaks  for  it  exemption,  on  the  score  of 
the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  it  was  written.  He 
adds,  "  Trifles  such  as  these,  which  on  other  occasions  might 
be  liable  to  disparaging  comment,  acquire  value  in  a  bio 
graphical  sketch,  as  exponents  of  characters.  They  are  to 
be  regarded  as  illustrative  anecdotes,  which  often  serve  to 
cast  a  better  light  upon  personal  qualities  or  the  features  of 
the  mind,  than  more  earnest  and  acute  dissertation.  They 
are  chiefly  valuable  in  the  present  case,  for  the  evidence  they 
furnish  us  of  that  eager,  sensitive,  and  stimulating  desire  in 
the  breast  of  Wirt,  to  contend  with  and  excel,  if  possible, 
the  most  renowned  and  skilful  competitors  in  the  theatre  of 
his  own  art."— Vol,  II.  p.  119. 

These  trifles  consist,  it  will  be  borne  in  mind,  of  three 
letters  (one  of  which  alone  I  have  commented  on),  April  2d, 
5th,  and  7th ;  in  two  of  which  Mr.  Pinkney  is  held  up  to 
posterity  in  any  thing  but  an  amiable  light,  and  in  the  3d 
exhibited  as  comparing  unfavorably  with  Wirt  in  the  estima 
tion  of  the  court,  bar,  and  bystanders.  If  they  be,  as  Mr  Ken 
nedy  affirms,  exponents  of  character,  I  am  greatly  in  error 


118  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

if  the  friends  of  Mr.  Wirt  do  not  join  me  in  the  expression 
of  opinion,  that  they  have  been  most  unfortunately  inserted 
into  his  biography.  Would  any  one,  who  takes  time  for 
reflection,  wish  to  wound  the  feelings  of  the  friends  of  Mr. 
Pinkney,  who  survive  him,  (at  a  time  too,  when  it  is  impos 
sible  for  them  to  open  the  secrets  of  the  past  for  his  justifi 
cation,)  for  the  sake  of  inserting  mere  trifles  and  retaining 
the  echo  of  a  trumpet  blast  of  victory  sounded  by  Mr.  Wirt's 
own  lips  ?  As  private  letters,  restricted  to  the  private  circles, 
I  should  have  never  ventured  to  criticise  them.  But  Mr. 
Kennedy  has  made  them  public  and  endeavored  to  defend 
them  as  "  exponents  of  character/'  although  two  of  them 
bear  unkindly  upon  the  memory  of  one  not  living  at  the  time 
of  their  publication  ;  and  the  other  is  a  self-appropriated 
claim  to  victory.  In  another  letter  to  Judge  Carr,  May  14th, 
1821  (Vol.  II.  p.  121),  I  read  : 

"  Why,  Sir,  have  not  I  been  to  Bel  Air,  in  the  midst  of 
it  all,  and  bearded  that  l  *  *  *  *  *  *  magician  Glen- 
dower/  without  suffering  the  thousandth  part  that  the  earth 
did,  at  the  birth  of  the  Welshman  ;  nay,  without  suffering 
by  the  struggle  or  in  the  comparison  ?" 

This  reference  to  Grlendower,  the  Welshman,  seems  to 
have  been  particularly  pleasing  to  Mr.  Wirt,  as  he  introduces 
it  on  more  than  one  occasion,  when  speaking  of  Mr.  Pinkney. 
Judging  from  the  tone  and  spirit  of  his  letters,  one  might 
fancy  that  Wirt  like  Lancaster  could  "  illy  brook  the  men 
tion  of  Grlendower."  I  will  not  insinuate  that  the  words  of 
the  Welshman  could  have  been  adopted  by  Mr.  Pinkney. 

"  Three  times  hath  Henry  Bolingbroke  made  head 
Against  my  power — thrice  from  the  banks  of  Wye, 
And  sandy-bottomed  Severn,  have  I  sent  him 
Bootless  home,  and  weather-beaten  back." 

But  surely  this  much  I  may  do.  I  may  well  express  my 
regret,  that  Wirt  had  not  with  Mortimer's  magnanimity 
have  divided  the  disputed  realm. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  119 

"  England,  from  Trent  and  Severn  hitherto, 
By  South  and  East  is  to  ray  part  assigned : 
All  westward.  Wales,  beyond  the  Severn  shore, 
And  all  the  fertile  land  within  that  bound, 
To  Owen  Glendower."— 

It  may  not  be  that  Wirt's  Glendower,  like  Shakspeare's, 
"  gave  the  tongue  a  helpful  ornament  that  was  never  seen 
before  " — but  still  comparisons  are  sometimes  stronger  and 
more  striking  than  we  at  first  imagined. 

Again  in  a  letter  to  Francis  W.  Gilmer,  May  9th,  1822, 
p.  138,  Vol.  II. 

"  Poor  Pinkney !  he  died  opportunely  for  his  fame.  It 
could  not  have  risen  higher  *  *  *  *. 

"  He  was  a  great  man.  On  a  set  occasion,  the  greatest, 
I  think,  at  our  bar.  I  never  heard  Emmet  nor  Wells,  and,  **- 
therefore,  I  do  not  say  the  American  bar.^He  was  an  ex 
cellent  lawyer  ;  had  very  great  force  of  mind^  great  compass, 
nice  discrimination,  strong  and  accurate  judgment  :  and  for 
copiousness  and  beauty  of  diction  was  unrivalled.  He  is  a 
real  loss  to  the  bar.  No  man  dared  to  grapple  with  him 
without  the  most  perfect  preparation  and  the  full  possession 
of  all  his  strength.  Thus  he  kept  the  bar  on  the  alert  and 
every  horse  with  his  traces  tight.  It  will  be  useful  to  re 
member  him,  and  in  every  case  to  imagine  him  the  adversary 
with  whom  we  have  to  cope.  But,  I  assure  you,  I  do  not 
enjoy  more  rest  because  that  comet  has  set.  There  was  a 
pleasurable  excitement  in  wrestling  with  him  on  full  pre 
paration.  In  my  two  last  encounters  with  him  I  was  well 
satisfied,  and  should  never  have  been  otherwise  when  en 
tirely  ready.  To  draw  his  supremacy  into  question,  any 
where,  was  honor  enough  for  ambition  as  moderate  as  mine." 

These  words  were  penned  in  an  hour  of  solemn  interest, 
over  the  closed  coffin  and  grave  of  his  contemporary — and 
yet  even  here  we  have  the  rising  of  the  same  restless  influ 
ence,  that  the  name  and  fame  of  Pinkney  always  produced 


120  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

\y 

on  Wirt.  Pinkney  did  die,  in  one  sense,  opportunely  for  his 
fame.  He  died  in  the  full  flush  of  honor;  with  his  face  front 
ing  duty;  not  ingloriously  reposing  upon  his  laurels,  but  in 
the  act  of  making  a  desperate  struggle  for  still  higher  fame 
and  vaster  renown.  But  he  had  not  reached  the  acme  of 
either  his  aspirations  or  his  hopes.  Had  he  lived,  and  his 
powers  continued  unimpaired  by  disease,  his  countrymen 
would  have  heard  of  him  yet  again  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate, 
and  the  forum.  ,  ^|t^ 

Mr.  Wirt  in  this  letter  concedes,  it  is  true,  "  that  he  was 
a  great  man ;  on  a  set  occasion  the  greatest  at  the  Mary 
land  bar.  He  had  not  heard  Emmet  or  Wells,  and  therefore 
he  did  not  say  the  American  bar.  "  He  had  heard  Web 
ster  and  Tazewell.  This  is  high  praise,  and  although  not 
uttered  until  the  orb  that  seemed  to  culminate  so  painfully 
on  Mr.  Wirt's  vision  had  set,  still  I  was  disposed  to  say 
that  it  was  praise  gracefully  spoken,  when  my  eye  rested 
upon  the  following  passage:  "In  my  two  last  encounters 
with  him  I  was  well  satisfied,  and  should  never  have  been 
otherwise,  when  entirely  ready."  No  mention  is  made  of 
him  but  in  self-comparison.  The  fame  of  Pinkney  (if  these 
letters  be  a  true  index  of  the  feelings  of  their  author)  was 
Wirt's  disturbing  ghost.  Even  when  the  great  Lawyer  and 
orator  lay  in  the  shroud,  and  criticism  herself  stood  disarmed 
by  his  bier,  that  ghost  could  not  be  laid.  Long  after 
death  had  claimed  its  victim,  it  continued  to  haunt  the 
memory  and  awaken  unpleasant  associations.  In  a  letter  to 
Judge  Carr,  February  9th,  1824  (Vol.  II.  p.  179),  he  thus ' 
wrote: 

"  There  was  Pinkney,  who  was  certainly  a  great  advocate. 
He  was  never  heard  to  complain  of  a  failure.  He  has  made 
some  speeches  which  would  have  half  killed  me.  On  a  great 
occasion  in  Annapolis  I  heard  him  speak  for  three  days.  Of 
the  first  day,  two  or  three  hours  were  in  his  best  mariner ; 
the  rest  of  that  day,  and  the  whole  of  the  following  two, 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  121 

were  filled  up  with  interminable  prolixity  of  petty  commen 
tary  upon  one  or  two  hundred  cases.  The  court,  bar  and 
every  one  were  tired  to  death.  He  went  home  and  told — 
that  he  had  made  the  greatest  speech  he  had  ever  made  in 
his  life." 

From  this  judgment  thus  sweepingly  made,  with  a  sort 
of  oracular  infallibility,  if  the  occasion  had  been  mentioned, 
I  apprehend  an  appeal  might  be  safely  made  to  those  who 
listened  for  three  days  to  Mr.  Pinkney.  For,  strange  to  say, 
he  never  spoke  in  Annapolis  without  admiring  audiences, 
and  the  judges  were  always  prompt  to  record  their  highest 
appreciation  of  his  power.  In  a  letter  to  Francis  W.  Gil- 
mer,  April  2d,  1825,  he  writes  further  : 

"  His  fame  had  a  magnitude  by  refraction,'  which  would 
have  been  impaired  by  the  publication  of  his  speeches/' 

The  letters,  to  which  I  take  exception  on  the  score  of 
propriety,  because  they  are  calculated  to  leave  on  the  mind 
of  the  reader  the  idea  that  Pinkney  was  disgustingly  over 
bearing  and  jealous,  while  Wirt,  his  contemporary,  was  the 
very  impersonation  of  modesty  and  retirement,  are  to  be 
found  on  pages  80  Vol.  II;  119,  do. ;  176,  do.  I  again  re 
peat,  that  I  would  most  gladly  have  omitted  this  whole  crit 
icism  on  the  work  of  Mr.  Kennedy,  if  justice  to  the  memory 
of  William  Pinkney  would  have  allowed.  But  that  was  not 
possible.  Thirty  years  had  passed,  since  Mr.  Pinkney  was 
laid  in  the  grave,  when,  needlessly  and  without  benefit  to  the 
character  of  Wirt,  his  biographer  gives  publicity,  not  merely 
to  Wirt's  depreciation  of  his  rival,  but  to  grave  reflections 
on  his  character.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  these  criticisms 
(both  severe  in  their  tone  and  unkind)  were  subsequently 
modified  and  changed.  They  were  never  so  modified,  as  not 
to  be  tinctured  by  the  most  transparent  self-exaltation  ;  and 
in  their  more  objectionable  features  they  were  not  modified 
at  all.  The  very  name  of  Wirt  gives  importance  to  his  opin 
ions  and  statements ;  and  the  superadded  name  of  Kennedy 


122  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

clothes  them  with  additional  authority.  And  surely,  as  the 
biographer  has  not  hesitated  to  give  all  the  perpetuity  he 
can  to  the  strictures  on  Mr.  Pinkney  and  mere  ex  parte  rep 
etitions  of  conversations — no  friend  of  Mr.  Pinkney,  in  an 
attempt  to  write  his  life  and  vindicate  his  character,  can  be 
blamed  for  subjecting  the  criticism  to  the  touchstone  of  a 
calm  and  impartial  review,  and  entering  a  protest  against 
those  ex  parte  statements. 

We  must  not  be  misunderstood.  Mr.  Kennedy  and  Mr. 
Wirt  had  a  right  to  speak  of  Mr.  Pinkney  as  they  thought 
fit.  I  concede  that  right  to  the  fullest  extent.  They  were 
at  liberty  to  dissect  his  mental  calibre  at  pleasure.  I  com 
plain  not  of  the  exercise  of  that  right.  But,  having  exer 
cised  it,  and  thereby  submitted  their  own  criticism  to  the 
world,  they  become  in  turn  fair  subjects  of  critical  investi 
gation,  and  no  one  has  a  right  to  complain  if  the  result  prove 
unsatisfactory  or  painful. 

But  I  deny  that  Mr.  Kennedy  had  a  right  to  publish 
one-sided  statements,  that  were  never  published  in  the  life 
time  of  the  person  assailed. 

Nil  de  mortuis  nisi  bonum,  is  a  most  admirable  senti 
ment.  The  world  may  deny  our  claim  to  greatness  or  se 
verely  dissect  our  intellectual  powers,  if  it  please.  But  no 
man  has  a  right  to  touch  the  character,  unless  upon  charges 
made  in  the  lifetime,  and  confronted  with  the  accused,  or  on 
statements  that  have  been  submitted  to  the  touchstone  of 
full  and  fair  investigation.  A  deeper  wrong  could  not  well 
have  been  inflicted  on  the  memory  of  the  lamented  Wirt, 
than  this  indiscreet  and  improper  publication.  I  can  only 
once  more  regret,  that  it  did  not  occur  to  the  discriminating 
judgment  of  the  biographer,  that  the  supremacy  of  either 
of  those  illustrious  men  could  never  be  satisfactorily  settled 
by  the  assertions  of  either ;  and  that  he  did  not  leave  those 
letters  in  the  privacy  they  were  permitted  to  enjoy  while 
Pinkney  lived.  They  exhibit  Mr.  Wirt's  character,  which 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  123 

was  in  many  respects  worthy  of  the  highest  admiration,  in  a 
most  unenviable  light ;  and  evince  a  weakness  of  jealousy 
upon  which  it  is  truly  painful  to  animadvert. 

N.  B. — Some  of  the  points  in  this  portion  of  my  memoir 
were  introduced  into  an  article  I  forwarded  to  the  Literary 
World,  which  was  published  some  time  ago. 


124  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 


PINKNEY,  A  STATESMAN. 

MR.  PINKNEY'S  character  in  this  aspect  of  it  is  not  generally 
understood,  and  is  not  therefore  properly  appreciated.  Be 
fore  I  enter  upon  a  review  of  his  conduct  in  the  different 
embassages  he  filled,  I  propose  to  inquire  what  it  was,  which 
entitled  him  to  the  appellation  of  a  statesman ;  in  what 
school  he  was  trained ;  and  what  were  the  mental  and  moral 
elements  which  combined  to  qualify  him  for  the  difficult  and 
delicate  functions  that  are  always  involved  in  the  manage 
ment  and  control  of  public  affairs.  He  was  a  true-hearted 
American  patriot,  a  sincere  and  ardent  lover  of  his  country, 
deeply  versed  in  the  grand  principles  of  our  glorious  consti 
tution,  and  a  thorough  master  of  every  portion  of  its  intri 
cate  and  beautiful  mechanism.  He  had  studied  the  system 
in  the  writings  of  its  august  founders.  Accustomed  from 
infancy  to  the  war-cry  of  the  Revolution,  his  youthful  imagi 
nation  was  fired  with  the  thrilling  associations  of  that  giant 
struggle  for  freedom.  He  grew  up  in  the  meridian  blaze  of 
the  period  of  "76.  His  profound  knowledge  of  constitutional 
law  enabled  him,  at  a  glance,  to  see  how  far  any  given  meas 
ure  comported  with  the  dignity  and  true  glory  of  the  coun 
try,  or  put  in  jeopardy  its  substantial  prosperity  and  success. 
He  had  the  nicest  conception  of  the  powers  of  the  General 
Government,  and  the  separate  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty  of 
the  States,  and  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of  the  boundary 
that  divided  the  one  from  the  other.  No  man  was  a  truer, 
firmer,  faster  friend  of  the  rights  of  the  States,  or  viewed 
with  a  more  jealous  eye  the  least  infringement  of  their  clear 
constitutional  prerogatives ;  and  yet  no  man  possessed  a  more 


LIFE   OF"  WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  125 

admirable  nationality  of  soul.  He  was  out  and  out  an 
American  in  all  his  views  and  principles.  His  spirit  was  as 
large  as  his  country,  and  wherever  the  stars  and  stripes 
floated,  through  the  whole  extent  of  the  national  domain,  he 
could  exultingly  say,  with  a  full  consciousness  of  the  glory 
of  the  sentiment,  "  This  is  my  country  all."  He  was  above 
the  influence  and  dominion  of  sectional  prejudices.  Though 
a  Southerner  by  birth,  his  noble  heart  beat  high  with  the 
broadest  nationality.  The  Union  he  prized  as  the  proud 
palladium  of  our  liberties,  the  fruitful  source  of  all  our  past 
mercies,  and  the  only  hope  of  the  still  more  glorious  future. 
He  saw  in  it  the  "  seminal  principle  "  of  an  unprecedented 
national  exaltation,  the  more  than  germ  of  the  most  stupen 
dous  system  of  government  the  sun  ever  before  shone  upon. 
The  union  of  independent  and  separate  States — united  in  all 
that  could  give  efficiency  to  the  whole,,  while  separate  and 
sovereign  in  all  that  was  essential  to  the  largest  desirable 
freedom  of  each — this  union  of  equals  for  the  purposes  of 
mutual  defence  and  glory,  enlisted  the  purest  sympathies  of 
his  soul,  and  called  forth  the  mightiest  strains  of  his  elo 
quence.  In  his  whole  political  career,  he  aspired  to  be  the 
friend  of  the  States  in  union ;  and  nothing  less  than  this 
broad  nationality  satisfied  his  ideas  of  what  a  true  devotion 
to  State  rights  required  at  his  hands.  He  saw  nothing  but 
advancement,  unparalleled  success  and  far-reaching,  illimita 
ble  prosperity,  for  the  States,  so  long  as  they  continued  in  a 
whole-souled  fealty  and  devotion  to  the  Union ;  while  in  the 
severance  of  that  Union  he  saw  nothing  but  the  darkness 
and  blackness  of  despotism,  the  most  dismal  and  frightful 
chaos  of  anarchy  and  confusion.  The  following  letter,  writ 
ten  by  Mr.  Clay  but  a  short  time  before  his  death,  corrobo 
rates  all  that  I  have  here  stated,  and  beautifully  expresses 
the  confidence  and  admiration  of  one,  who  remembered  to 
applaud  the  day  that  witnessed  Mr.  Pinkney's  triumphant 


126  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

vindication  of  the  constitution  in  the  discussion  of  the  Mis 
souri  question. 

"HAVANA,  March  2$lh,  1851. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  request  your  acceptance  of  my 
thanks  for  the  Chart  and  History  of  Hayti,  which  you  have 
done  me  the  favor  to  present  to  me.  They  relate  to  an 
island,  distinguished  by  great  vicissitudes  of  prosperity  and 
adversity,  and  I  shall  take  much  pleasure  in  tracing  them. 
It  is  greatly  to  he  regretted  that  an  island  so  full  of  rich 
resources  could  not  be  made  more  conducive  to  the  supply 
of  the  commerce  and  the  consumption  of  our  species. 

"  I  beg  your  acceptance  also  of  my  acknowledgments 
for  your  friendly  consideration  of  me,  and  for  your  kind  es 
timate  (quite  too  high  and  flattering)  of  my  public  services. 
On  the  recent  perilous  occasions  in  our  councils,  it  was  a 
matter  of  great  gratification  and  encouragement  to  have 
been  perfectly  assured  that  the  navy,  as  well  as  the  army, 
and  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  were 
true  and  faithful  to  that  Union,  which  is  at  once  the  bond, 
the  security,  and  the  glory  of  all. 

"  Had  William  Pinkney  been  alive,  your  illustrious  rela 
tion,  his  eloquent  voice  would  have  been  conspicuously  and 
effectively  heard  in  the  defence  and  support  of  that  Union. 

"  With  my  best  respects  for  your  health,  happiness,  and 
prosperity, 

"  I  am,  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  Dr.  Ninian  Pinkney,  H.  CLAY." 

"  U.  S.  Navy." 

It  was  Mr.  Pinkney's  constant  aim  to  be  eminently  just. 
He  scorned  the  questionable  expedients  so  often  resorted  to 
by  petty  politicians.  Deeming  honesty  the  crowning  orna 
ment  of  a  diplomatist,  and  his  country's  honor  the  only  safe 
guiding  star  of  public  policy,  he  pursued  his  object  with 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY,  127 

bold  independence  and  manly  directness.  Extraordinary 
quickness  in  comprehending  the  merits  of  a  subject — extra 
ordinary  labor  and  patience  of  research  in  threading  all  its 
perplexing  labyrinths,  and  extricating  it  from  every  thing 
extraneous  or  irrelevant — commanding  and  ready  eloquence 
in  enforcing  his  own  deliberate  and  well-weighed  conclusions 
— superiority  to  low  and  contemptible  artifice — remarkable 
prudence  and  self-control  in  brushing  away  the  "  cobweb 
conceits  "  of  shallow  politicians — moral  courage,  the  bravery 
of  the  heart,  which  is  unappalled  by  difficulties  and  unawed 
in  danger,  and  which  always  dares  to  assume  responsibility 
and  meet  it — these  all  combined  to  make  him  a  consummate 
statesman. 

I  speak  now  of  his  powers  in  the  abstract — powers  which 
a  Washington  was  the  first  to  discover,  and  a  Jefferson, 
Madison,  and  Monroe  were  as  prompt  to  appreciate  and 
reward.  If  Mr.  Pinkney  had  never  been  tried  in  the  active 
duties  of  statesmanship,  we  might  have  confidently  argued 
his  pre-eminent  fitness  for  the  work  from  those  well-known 
attributes  of  his  character.  Having  been  tried,  let  us  now 
inquire  how  they  were  developed  and  exhibited.  Was  the 
fruit  worthy  of  the  tree  ? 

It  will  be  remembered  that  his  first  appearance  abroad 
was  under  the  appointment  of  Washington,  as  commis 
sioner  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  under  the  7th 
article  of  Jay's  Treaty.  The  duties  rendered  under  that 
appointment  are  recorded  in  history  ;  and  it  is  not  necessary 
to  say  more  of  them  now,  than  that  the  result  of  his  labors 
was  the  making  award  by  the  Board  on  the  principles  con 
tended  for  by  the  American  commissioners. 

President  Jefferson  invited  him  to  assist  Mr.  Monroe  in 
the  pending  negotiations  with  Great  Britain.  His  accept 
ance  of  this  appointment  subjected  him  to  severe  censure  ; 
his  motives  were  impugned,  and  his  fidelity  to  his  old  polit 
ical  principles  was  called  in  question.  I  have  shown,  upon 


128  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

the  authority  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  own  letter,  that  the  ap 
pointment  came  to  him  without  solicitation,  direct  or  indi 
rect.  The  interests  of  the  country  seemed  to  call  loudly 
for  an  extraordinary  embassage,  and  the  high  character  of 
Mr.  Pinkney  in  England  (which  was  the  result  of  his  former 
sojourn  in  that  country)  seemed  to  concur,  with  his  known 
ability  and  prudence,  in  pointing  him  out  as  the  very  man 
for  the  position.  Mr.  Pinkney  did  not  waver  in  devotion  to 
his  country's  cause.  In  a  spirit  of  noble  self-sacrifice  he 
stepped  forth  and  laid  on  the  altar  of  his  country  his  large 
experience  and  the  reputation  he  had  already  won.  He  was 
not  the  man  to  skulk  from  duty  in  such  a  crisis  for  a  mere 
personal  and  selfish  consideration,  where  principle  and  honor 
were  to  be  neither  compromised  nor  offered  up  in  sacrifice. 
In  his  letter  to  Mr.  Cooke,  of  Baltimore,  of  the  5th  October, 
1806,  he  thus  eloquently  and  feelingly  vindicates  himself 
from  those  ungenerous  imputations  : 

MB.    PINKNEY   TO   MB.    COOKE. 

"LONDON,  5th  October,  1806. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIB  : — I  am  very  much  indebted  to  you  for 
your  truly  kind  letter  of  the  4th  of  August,  which  has  just 
reached  me.  It  contains  the  best  proof  in  the  world  of  your 
good  opinion  and  regard.  It  speaks  to  me  with  candor, 
and,  at  the  same  time  that  it  betrays  the  partiality  of  a  long- 
tried  friendship,  guards  me  against  the  disappointment  to 
which  a  sanguine  and  credulous  temper  might  expose  me, 
and  enables  me  to  anticipate  in  season  the  misconceptions 
and  calumnies  which  are  preparing  for  me.  This  anticipa 
tion  is  certainly  wholesome  ;  but  it  is  unpleasant  notwith 
standing.  The  language  of  reproach  is  new  to  me,  and  I 
fear  I  shall  not  learn  to  bear  it  with  a  good  grace  from  a 
country  which  I  have  ardently  loved  and  faithfully  served 
with  the  best  years  of  my  life.  The  consciousness  that  I  do 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  129 

not,  and  cannot  deserve  it,  consoles  me  in  one  view,  while  it 
mortifies  me  in  another.  I  am  proud  of  the  unqualified  con 
viction  of  my  heart  and  understanding,  that  I  am  incapable 
of  any  thing  that  an  honest  man  should  blush  to  avow ;  but 
it  gives  me  pain  to  find  that  no  purity  of  motive  or  integrity 
of  conduct  can  afford  shelter  in  this  world  from  the  vilest 
and  most  disgusting  imputations.  Our  country  is  young, 
and  ought  to  be  generous  and  charitable,  and  I  believe  that 
the  great  bulk  of  our  people  are  so.  But  I  do  not  need  to 
have  my  actions  diaritcibty  interpreted.  I  ask  only  a  just 
construction  of  them ;  I  care  not  how  rigorous,  if  it  be  not 
malignant.  It  seemed  natural  to  suppose,  that  putting 
former  character  out  of  the  question,  the  circumstances  under 
which  I  last  came  abroad  would  at  least  secure  me  from  the 
suspicion  of  selfish  views  and  time-serving  policy;  and  I  am, 
of  course,  surprised  that  a  man  can  be  found  to  infer,  from 
my  acceptance  of  the  arduous  trust  in  which  I  am  now  en 
gaged,  '  that  I  have  deserted  my  principles  and  my  friends, 
and  pledged  myself  to  support  the  party  in  power  and  their 
measures  to  every  extent  ?'%  What  principles,  in  God's  name, 
and  what  friends  have  I  deserted  ?  The  plain  matter  of 
fact  is  thus  :  A  great  national  crisis  occurs,  which  requires, 
or  is  supposed  to  require,  an  extraordinary  foreign  mission. 
The  President,  whom  I  may  be  said  to  know  only  by  char 
acter,  offers  this  important  charge  to  me.  I  give  up  my 
profession.  I  surrender  all  my  hopes  of  future  fortune.  I 
forego  a  second  time,  and  for  ever,  the  expectation  of  placing 
my  numerous  and  helpless  family  in  a  state  of  independence, 
and  accept  this  anxious  trust,  which,  instead  of  promising 
pecuniary  emolument,  is  likely  to  bring  with  it  a  heavy 
pecuniary  loss,  and  which,  so  far  from  promising  to  do  me 
honor,  puts  in  hazard  the  stock  of  reputation  I  have  before 
acquired.  Now  what  abandonment  of  principle  is  there  in 
all  this  ?  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  I  may  have  acted  im- 
providently,  as  regards  myself  and  my  children,  and  that  I 
9 


130  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

may  have  overrated  my  capacity,  and  undertaken  a  task  to 
which  I  am  not  competent.  But  I  am  quite  sure  that  I 
have  not  deviated  from  the  path  of  honor  in  which,  with  an 
approving  conscience,  I  have  walked  from  my  boyish  days. 
T&y  appointment  is  known  to  have  been  as  completely  un 
solicited  as  ever  appointment  was  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world.  It  came  to  me  wholly  unsought.  It  is  to  the  credit 
of  the  government  that  it  did  so.  It  came  to  me  unclogged 
by  any  terms  or  conditions.  They  who  talk  of  a  pledge  on 
my  part,  as  the  consideration  of  it,  know  that  they  insinuate 
a  base  and  detestable  falsehood.  No  such  pledge,  no  pledge 
of  any  kind,  was  ever  proposed  to  me.  I  was  treated  with 
honor,  and  delicacy,  and  confidence  ;  and  I  have  a  firm  re 
liance  that  I  shall  continue  to  be  so  treated.  An  attempt 
to  treat  me  otherwise  would  drive  me  in  a  moment  from 
office,  as  it  would  have  prevented  me  from  accepting  it.  As 
to  this  pledge,  the  slander  is  too  gross  to  be  believed.  I 
have  an  intimate  persuasion,  founded  upon  a  consciousness 
which  I  cannot  mistake,  of  integrity  without  blemish,  that 
no  man  would  undertake  to  suggest  to  me  so  vile  and  infa 
mous  a  compact  as  the  price  of  public  station.  The  accept 
ance  of  my  appointment  may,  indeed,  imply  a  pledge  ;  and 
I  am  content  that  it  shall  be  taken  to  be  as  large  as  honor 
will  permit.  In  its  utmost  size,  whatever  that  may  be,  I 
will  faithfully  redeem  it,  and  should  be  ashamed  to  have  it 
supposed  that  I  could  shrink  from  a  duty  so  pressing  and 
obvious.  The  foolish,  and  often  hypocritical  cant  about 
apostacy  and  desertion  of  principles,  shall  not  frighten  me 
from  the  steady  and  manly  course  to  which  this  duty  directs 
me.  I  have  never  professed  any  principles  with  which  my 
present  situation,  connected  as  it  unquestionably  is  with  the 
great  interests  of  my  country,  is  in  the  slightest  degree  in 
consistent.  I  find  nothing  in  the  objects  of  it,  in  the  means 
by  which  I  am  instructed  to  accomplish  those  objects,  or  in 
the  measures  of  the  government  preparatory  to  the  mission, 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  131 

which  I  do  not  entirely  approve,  and  have  not  uniformly  ap 
proved. 

"As  to  the  friends  I  have  deserted,  who  are  they?  I 
accepted  my  appointment,  as  far  as  I  could  ascertain,  with 
the  entire  concurrence  of  my  friends  of  both  parties  ;  and  I 
rejoice  that  I  have  friends  of  all  parties.  It  was  that  flat 
tering  concurrence  which  encouraged  me  to  hope  that  the 
anxiety  inseparable  from  my  undertaking  would  not  be  ag 
gravated  by  unjust  and  unfeeling  prejudices,  and  that  I 
should  have  no  difficulties  to  struggle  with,  but  such  as  I 
should  find  here.  The  affection  of  many  of  my  friends  in 
duced  them  to  express  their  fears  that,  as  an  individual,  I 
should  suffer  by  the  mission.  But  they  did  not  conceal 
their  approbation  of  my  appointment,  and  did  not  intimate 
that  any  but  prudential  considerations  ought  to  restrain  me 
from  accepting  it.  I  have  since  been  frequently  consoled  by 
the  recollection  of  this,  the  most  interesting  period  of  my 
life." 

It  will  thus  appear  that  Mr.  Pinkney  embarked  in  this 
great  national  mission,  strong  in  his  own  integrity  and  with 
a  bosom  glowing  with  patriotic  fervor  and  zeal.  Let  us  now 
see  what  he  did  or  attempted  to  do,  in  what  spirit  and  with 
what  ability  he  conducted  his  part  of  the  negotiation — and 
in  all  that  is  here  said,  let  it  be  understood,  that  so  long  as 
his  illustrious  colleague  Mr.  Monroe  remained,  he  bore  a  most 
distinguished  part.  They  moved  in  the  matter  like  men 
above  the  influence  of  petty  and  blinding  prejudices,  with 
the  broad  feelings  of  American  citizens  in  charge  of  Ameri 
can  rights.  With  what  care  he  watched  the  progress  of 
events,  and  with  what  solicitude  he  guarded  the  national 
honor,  and  vindicated  the  rights  of  the  country,  may  be  seen 
through  the  whole  period  of  the  negotiation  ;  but  nowhere 
more  conspicuously  than  in  the  letter  he  addressed  to  Pre 
sident  Madison  as  early  as  the  31st  December,  1807. 

"  The  attitude  which  our  government  is  now  to  take, 


132  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY, 

will  fix  our  destiny  for  ever  ;  and  my  trust  is  strong  and  con 
fident  that  both  will  be  worthy  of  the  high  name  of  our 
country. 

"  In  my  public  letters  I  have  ventured  to  intimate  my 
opinions  as  to  the  conduct  which  the  crisis  demands  from 
us.  You  will  excuse  me,  if  in  a  private  letter  I  speak  with 
more  freedom. 

"  It  will,  I  sincerely  hope,  be  the  solemn  conviction  of 
every  man  in  America  (as  it  is  mine)  that  it  has  become  im 
possible,  without  the  entire  loss  of  our  honor,  and  the  sacrifice 
of  every  thing  which  it  is  our  duty  to  protect,  to  submit  in 
the  smallest  degree  to  that  extravagant  system  of  maritime 
oppression  (proceeding  more  from  jealousy  of  our  rising 
greatness  than  from  miDtives  actually  avowed)  by  which  Great 
Britain  every  day  exemplifies  in  various  modes  the  favorite 
doctrine  of  her  infatuated  advisers,  that  Power  and  Rightful 
Dominion  are  equivalent  terms, 

"No  man  can  deprecate  war  upon  light  and  frivolous 
grounds  more  sincerely  than  I  should  do.«  But  if  war  arises 
out  of  our  resistance  to  this  pernicious  career  of  arrogance 
and  selfishness,  which,  while  it  threatens  our  best  interests 
with  ruin,  is  even  more  insulting  than  it  is  injurious,  and 
more  humiliating  than  it  is  destructive,  can  it  be  doubted 
that  our  cause  is  a  just  one,  or  that  we  shall  be  able  and 
willing  to  maintain  it  as  a  great  and  gallant  nation  ought 
to  do  ? 

"  Our  government  has  shown  a  laudable  solicitude,  for 
peace  with  all  the  world,  and  has  acted  wisely  in  its  efforts 
to  preserve  it.  But  the  time  has  arrived  when  it  seems  to 
be  certain  that  we  must  yield  up  all  that  we  prize  of  repu 
tation,  of  fortune,  and  of  power,  to  the  naval  despotism  of 
this  country,  or  meet  it  with  spirit  and  resolution ;  if  not 
by  war,  at  least  by  some  act  of  a  strong  and  decisive  char 
acter. 

"  The  argument  against  resistance  to  British  aggression, 


LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  133 

founded  upon  supposed  danger  from  France,  if  Great  Britain 
should  be  greatly  weakened  by  that  resistance,  proves  too 
much,  and  is  otherwise  false  in  fact  and  reasoning. 

"  It  may  be  admitted,  however,  that  France  is  a  subject 
of  apprehension  to  America  as  well  as  to  Europe  ;  but  are 
we  on  that  account  to  suffer  with  patience  every  wrong 
which  Great  Britain,  stimulated  by  the  jealousy  of  her  mer 
chants,  or  the  avarice  of  her  Navy,  or  the  pride  of  con 
scious  power,  may  inflict  upon  us?  Such  a  state  of  abject 
slavery  to  our  peers,  such  a  tame  surrender  of  our  rights,  as 
the  price  of  British  protection  against  possible  and  contingent 
peril,  would  be  a  thousand  times  more  degrading  than  if  we 
were  now  in  the  maturity  of  our  years  to  return  openly  to  the 
dependence  of  our  colonial  infancy  upon  the  guardianship  of 
the  parent  country.  If  we  once  listen  to  this  base  and  pu 
sillanimous  suggestion,  we  have  passed  under  the  yoke  and 
are  no  longer  a  nation  of  freemen ;  we  shall  not  only  be  de 
spised  and  trampled  upon  by  all  the  world,  but,  what  is  of 
infinitely  more  importance,  we  shall  despise  ourselves — 
France  will  justly  become  our  irreconcilable  enemy,  and 
Great  Britain  will  only  be  encouraged  and  enabled  to  stab 
to  the  heart  the  prosperity  which  she  envies,  and  the  power 
which  she  begins  to  dread.  By  a  different  course,  that 
which  suits  with  the  manly  character  and  the  great  resources 
of  the  American  people,  we  shall  show  that  we  rely  on  our 
selves  for  protection.  We  shall  maintain,  with  the  gallantry 
and  firmness  which  have  heretofore  characterized  us,  our 
station  among  the  powers  of  the  earth.  We  shall  check, 
while  there  is  yet  time,  the  usurpation  of  Great  Britain, 
without  destroying  her  salutary  strength." 

This  noble  letter  breathes  a  lofty  confidence  in  the  integ 
rity  of  his  country's  cause.  It  repudiates  indignantly  the 
idea  of  any  compromise  of  her  rights,  and  points  out  and 
severely  rebukes  the  arrogance  and  presumption  of  England's 
claims  upon  the  high  seas,  and  sounds  the  tocsin  of  war 


134  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

sooner  than  submit  to  a  surrender  of  our  rights,  by  a  timid 
faltering  policy,  or  a  base  compromise.  Mark  the  date  of 
this  letter,  at  the  same  time  you  analyze  its  tone  and  temper, 
and  you  will  see  that  none  saw  more  clearly  or  resented  more 
eloquently  the  odiousness  of  the  decrees  in  council  than  Mr. 
Pinkney,  or  availed  themselves  of  an  earlier  opportunity  in 
giving  full  and  free  expression  to  their  views  and  feelings. 
Speaking  to  the  constitutional  head  of  this  government,  he 
spoke  with  the  bold  independence  of  an  American  citizen  in 
charge  of  American  rights. 

In  this  mission  he  was  unsuccessful.  Why  ?  Not  be 
cause  he  had  failed  to  exhaust  both  argument  and  appeal  in 
his  efforts  to  awaken  a  sense  of  justice  and  true  enlightened 
policy  in  the  bosom  of  those,  whose  counsels  guided  Eng 
land  in  that  eventful  day.  Not  because  he  had  waxed  neg 
ligent  in  making  prompt  and  manly  protest  against  her  mon 
strous  aggressions,  and  tardy  and  insulting  slowness  to  make 
amends  for  the  wrongs  perpetrated. 

True  it  is,  he  was  under  injunction  not  to  jeopard  the 
peace  of  the  countries,  by  precipitate  action  or  the  too  free 
expression  of  his  own  excited  and  wounded  pride.  Not  less 
true  it  is  that  he  did  restrain,  with  admirable  self-control, 
his  indignation,  while  compelled  to  witness  aggressions  re 
peated  without  redress,  and  diplomatic  finesse  pushed  almost 
to  the  verge  of  open  indignity.  He  did  it  because  it  was 
the  will  of  his  government  it  should  be  done,  not  because 
the  peace  of  the  world  made  it  desirable  that  endurance 
should  be  carried  to  the  farthest  possible  point. 

The  conduct  pursued  by  our  ministers  during  that  criti 
cal  and  most  difficult  negotiation,  beautifully  contrasts  with 
that  pursued  by  the  English  ministry  and  their  deputed 
agents.  The  English  journalists  of  that  era  were  compelled, 
in  the  hour  of  calm  review  and  cool  investigation,  to  de 
nounce  in  tones  of  indignant  rebuke  the  unmanly  and  disin 
genuous  policy  of  a  Canning  and  a  Wellesley ;  and  seemed  to 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  135 

amuse  themselves  at  our  cost,  for  what  they  supposed  was 
the  weak  credulity  and  want  of  penetration  exhibited  by 
those,  who  were  then  in  charge  of  American  rights  at  the 
court  of  St.  James.  A  dispassionate  examination  of  the 
subjoined  correspondence  will  show  that  they  were  as  correct 
in  the  former  opinion,  as  they  were  egregiously  mistaken  in 
the  latter.  Mr.  Pinkney  before  he  embarked  on  the  mission 
had  dissected  England's  policy  with  the  skill  of  a  master,  and 
exposed  her  rapacious  and  grasping  ambition  and  wanton 
infraction  of  the  law  of  nations  in  her  aggressions  on  the  free 
dom  of  the  seas,  with  resistless  eloquence  and  power  of  ar 
gument.  He  entered  on  the  mission  with  open  eyes  and 
judgment  thoroughly  informed.  He  needed  no  one  to  ad 
monish  him  or  put  him  on  his  guard.  In  Mr.  Monroe,  he 
found  a  clear-headed,  enlightened,  experienced  American 
statesman,  in  every  respect  equal  to  the  high  trust  confided  to 
him.  And  in  all  the  conferences  they  had  with  the  British 
negotiators  did  he  and  Mr.  Monroe  set  forth  the  claims  of 
the  United  States,  and  repel  the  views  and  pretensions  of 
England.  In  their  frequent  interviews  with  Lords  Holland 
and  Auckland,  they  displayed  not  less  ability  than  they  did 
zeal  and  moderation  in  the  assertion  of  our  national  honor 
and  rights,  and  did  all  that  human  eloquence  could  do  to  se 
cure  a  full  and  satisfactory  adjustment  of  all  the  points  in 
controversy.  On  31st  Dec.,  1806,  they  concluded  a  treaty. 
As  that  treaty  has  been  the  subject  of  much  abuse,  I  beg 
leave  to  insert  a  few  passages  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Monroe, 
dated  February  28th3  1808,  written  in  its  defence. 

"  The  idea  (says  Mr.  Monroe)  entertained  by  the  pub 
lic  is,  that  the  rights  of  the  United  States  were  abandoned 
by  the  American  commissioners  in  the  late  negotiation,  and 
that  their  seamen  were  left  by  tacit  acquiescence,  if  not  by 
formal  renunciation,  to  depend  for  their  safety  on  the  mercy 
of  the  British  cruisers.  I  have  on  the  contrary  always  be 
lieved  and  still  do  believe  that  the  ground  on  which  that  in- 


136  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY, 

terest  was  placed  by  the  paper  of  the  British  commissioners, 
of  Nov.  8th,  1806,  and  the  explanations  which  accompanied 
it,  was  both  honorable  and  advantageous  to  the  United  States ; 
that  it  contained  a  concession  in  their  favor  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain  on  the  great  principle  in  contestation  never  be 
fore  made  by  a  formal  and  obligatory  act  of  the  government, 
which  was  highly  favorable  to  their  interest;  and  that  it 
also  imposed  on  her  the  obligation  to  conform  her  practice 
under  it,  till  a  more  complete  arrangement  should  be  con 
cluded,  to  the  just  claims  of  the  United  States." 

Again.  "  It  is  evident  that  the  rights  of  the  United 
States  were  expressly  to  be  reserved  and  not  abandoned,  as 
has  been  most  erroneously  supposed ;  that  the  negotiation 
on  the  subject  of  impressment  was  to  be  postponed  for  a 
limited  time,  and  for  a  special  object  only,  and  to  be  revived 
as  soon  as  that  object  was  accomplished ;  and  in  the  interim 
that  the  practice  of  impressment  was  to  correspond  essen 
tially  with  the  views  and  interests  of  the  United  States." 
— State  Paper,  vol.  6,  page  421. 

The  whole  of  this  long  letter  is  worthy  of  a  perusal,  and 
less  than  the  whole  cannot  well  exhibit  the  ground  upon  which 
the  defence  of  that  treaty  is  based.  tThis  treaty  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  refused  to  ratify.  He  did  not  so  much  as  consult  the 
Senate  upon  it ;  but  took  upon  himself  the  sole  responsibility 
of  its  rejection.  In  Hildreth's  History  of  the  United  States, 
Vol.  V.,  p.  656,  &c.,  its  wisdom,  sound  policy  and  propriety 
the  most  triumphantly  vindicated.  "  The  British  negotia 
tors  declared  that  although  the  ministry  could  not  venture  to 
give  up  by  formal  treaty  the  right  of  impressment  on  the 
high  seas,  yet  that  special  instructions  should  be  given  and 
enforced  for  the  observance  of  the  greatest  caution  against 
subjecting  any  American  born  citizen  to  molestation  or  in 
jury,  and  that  in  case  of  any  such  injury,  upon  representa 
tion  of  it,  the  promptest  redress  should  be  afforded.  Theso 
assurances  were  reduced  to  writing,  suggesting  at  the  same 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  137 

time,  that  while  ~botli  parties  thus  reserved  these  rights,  this 
stipulation  might  answer  temporarily.  *  *  *  Having 
obtained  every  concession  on  the  subject  of  impressment 
short  of  a  renunciation  by  the  British  government  o£  the 
claim  of  right  to  take  British  subjects  out  of  American 
vessels — a  claim  going  back  to  an  indefinite  antiquity, 
strongly  supported  by  the  national  feeling,  and  thought  at 
the  present  crisis  of  European  affairs  essential  to  the  na 
tional  safety — and  having  thus  placed  the  United  States  as 
to  this  question  on  ground,  short  indeed  of  what  justice  de 
manded  and  perhaps  of  their  rights,  but  the  best,  which  at 
present  there  was  the  slightest  prospect  of  obtaining  ;  under 
these  circumstances,  imitating  the  example  of  Jay  and  of 
the  commission  to  France  in  1799,  Monroe  and  Pinkney  did 
not  deem  it  consistent  either  with  common  prudence  or  com 
mon  sense  to  relinquish  the  advantage  thus  secured,  and  along 
with  it  other  advantages  in  prospect,  and  from  a  too  strict 
adherence  to  instructions  to  leave  the  country,  by  breaking 
up  the  negotiation,  exposed  to  vast  maritime  losses,  to  the  con 
tinuance  and  aggravation  of  present  misunderstandings,  and 
to  imminent  risk  of  war."  This  is  the  verdict  passed  by 
faithful  and  impartial  history  upon  that  important  transac 
tion.  And  after  the  letter  of  Monroe,  and  the  satisfactory 
exposition  of  Hildreth,  I  feel  that  I  can  safely  intrust  it  to 
the  judgment  of  posterity.  *  True  it  is,  it  did  leave  the  ques 
tion  of  impressment  unsettled.  But  what  became  of  that 
question,  and  how  does  it  stand  at  the  present  moment  ?  It 
did  not  surrender  the  right.  It  yielded  up  nothing.  It  only 
postponed  to  future  negotiation  the  adjustment,  securing  in 
the  meanwhile  the  most  important  and  desirable  modification 
of  its  use,  in  its  oppressive  bearing  upon  our  interests.  Mr. 
Pinkney  and  Mr.  Monroe  were  as  deeply  sensible  that  the 
treaty  did  not  secure  all  that  could  be  desired  or  reasonably 
or  equitably  asked,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  or  its  bitterest  assailant. 
They  were  called  upon  to  decide  between  two  things,  neither 


138  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

of  which  were  to  be  desired.  They  would  have  spurned,  as 
indignantly  as  any,  a  dishonorable  adjustment  of  our  diffi 
culties  with  England.  They  felt  the  injustice  of  the  im 
pressment  as  practised  by  her,  and  would  never  have  con 
sented  to  a  tame  surrender  of  our  earnest  and  decisive  pro 
test  against  that  right,  as  a  violation  of  the  law  of  nations 
too  flagrant  to  be  justified  by  any  supposed  exigencies  of  na 
tional  defence,  that  could  be  pleaded  in  its  extenuation.  They 
were  willing,  upon  the  positive  assurance  of  the  British  gov 
ernment  previously  given,  that  it  should  be  used  in  essential 
correspondence  with  the  views  of  the  United  States,  to  leave 
it  among  the  questions  not  settled  ;  not  because  they  were 
disposed  to  submit  to  the  practice,  but  solely,  because  they 
thought  the  permitting  it  to  pass  by  for  the  present  prefera 
ble  to  war,  at  a  time  when  we  were  so  little  prepared  to  en 
counter  it.  /*War  came  at  last,  when  negotiation  failed,  and 
it  was  hailed  with  both  pride  and  pleasure  by  Mr.  Pinkney, 
because  the  national  honor  required  it,  and  the  patience  and 
forbearance  of  negotiation  had  proved  inoperative  to  wring 
from  England  the  proper  redress  for  wrongs  perpetrated.  It 
was  a  war  that  covered  our  gallant  little  Navy  with  deathless 
glory,  and  proved  to  the  world  that  England  was  no  longer 
mistress  of  the  seas.  A  new  power  was  upon  that  mighty 
element,  capable  of  maintaining  its  flag  untarnished,  whose 
motto  was  "  Don't  give  up  the  ship." 

What  became  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  sine  qua  non  ?  without 
which  he  refused  to  ratify  this  treaty.  Was  the  right  of 
impressment  abandoned  or  surrendered  by  the  treaty  that 
actually  followed  the  war  ?  It  is  as  yet  among  the  things 
not  given  up.  It  is  a  right,  unexercised  I  grant,  and  one 
that  will  never  again  be  exercised,  as  far  as  our  flag  is  con 
cerned.  But  the  only  treaty  that  reduced  it  to  a  mere 
barren  abstract  claim  of  right  was  the  thunder  of  our  little 
navy  on  the  seas.  Neither  Mr.  Monroe  nor  Mr.  Pinkney 
were  fully  convinced  that  it  would  be  otherwise  settled, 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  139 

however  much  they  may  have  hoped  and  wished  that  justice 
and  a  sense  of  right  would  ultimately  prevail  in  the  British 
councils  ;  and,  without  its  settlement,  neither  of  them  would 
or  could  have  rested  satisfied.  They  did  the  best  they  could 
in  the  then  state  of  public  affairs,  and,  in  no  proper  sense 
of  the  word,  did  they  forget  what  was  due  to  the  American 
flag,  or  the  brave  tars  that  bore  it  so  gallantly  on  the  seas. 
They  were  not  willing  to  throw  away  the  chances  of  an 
honorable  peace  by  rashness  or  inconsideration.  The  post 
ponement  for  a  while  of  the  right  of  impressment,  they 
thought,  would  result  in  no  serious  injury  to  the  United 
States,  after  the  explicit  acknowledgment  that,  until  settled, 
it  would  be  used  in  accordance  with  our  views  of  interest. 
I  think,  with  no  impeachment  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  that  Pink- 
ney  and  Monroe  acted  the  wiser  part. 

It  is  delightful,  in  recalling,  for  the  vindication  of  Mr. 
Pinkney's  character,  the  odious  policy  that  was  pursued  by 
Great  Britain  towards  the  United  States  prior  to  the  war 
of  1812,  to  reflect  that  these  two  great  countries  are  now 
bound  to  each  other  by  the  strongest  ties  of  interest  and  of 
amity,  which,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  for  the  sake  of  the  world, 
neither  of  them  may  be  ever  tempted  to  forget  or  snap 
asunder.  Speaking  the  same  language,  avowedly  attached 
to  the  same  great  principles  of  political  freedom,  eminently 
commercial  in  their  spirit  and  destiny,  and  thereby  qualified 
to  become  leaders  in  the  diffusion  of  light  and  knowledge 
the  world  over,  they  may,  with  exulting  pride,  forget  that 
old  feuds  ever  existed,  and  henceforth  live  to  honor  and 
respect  each  other,  and  work  in  concert  for  the  welfare  of 
the  nations.  We  have  an  interest  and  a  home  in  the  land 
of  Shakspeare  and  of  Milton.  We  love  the  old  cathedrals 
and  good  old  church  of  England.  We  study  the  decisions 
of  her  noble  and  enlightened  courts,  and  claim  a  copartner 
ship  in  her  splendid  literature  and  stupendous  national 
glory.  And  we  flatter  ourselves  that  the  day  has  come 


140  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

when  the  mother  may  justly  pride  herself  on  the  daughter, 
and  feel  that  we  are  more  than  the  recipients  of  her  light 
and  lustre.  An  Englishman  may  now  look  upon  the  land 
of  Washington,  and  bless  God  that  the  name  and  fame  of 
England  are  renewed  in  the  name  and  fame  of  the  United 
States,  The  glory  of  the  past  of  either  will  not  compare 
with  their  future,  if  peace  prevail  in  their  mutual  councils, 
and  their  flags  wave  over  seas  covered  by  their  mutual  com 
merce  in  beauteous  harmony.  May  their  towering  strength 
know  of  no  competition  but  that  of  friendly  rivalry.  May 
their  race  of  glory  be  henceforth  and  for  ever  in  parallel 
lines,  whose  interests  and  true  national  exaltation  manifestly 
lie  in  one  and  the  same  direction. 

It  becomes  now  my  painful  duty  in  this  connection  to 
examine  the  statements  of  a  work,  which  was  widely  circu 
lated  at  the  time  it  was  issued,  entitled  "The  Memoirs  of 
Jefferson."  This  work  was  published  in  1809.  Its  author 
ship  was  never,  that  I  know  of,  avowed.  It  contains  very 
severe  and  acrimonious  animadversions  upon  the  character 
and  conduct  of  Mr.  Pinkney.  It  charges  him  with  gross 
duplicity  and  falsehood.  The  writer  'does  not  mince  his 
words.  Destitute  of  the  caution  that  is  usually  observed 
by  those  who  delight  in  detraction,  he  is  prodigal  of  his 
facts  in  proof,  and  deals  with  astounding  freedom  with  dates, 
those  honest  tell-tales  against  such  as  use  them  carelessly. 
I  propose  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the  charges  made, 
and  the  proofs  adduced,  reaffirming  that  noble  sentiment 
which  this  writer  had  the  rashness  to  indorse,  "  that  if  a 
history  wants  truth,  it  wants  every  thing  that  can  recom 
mend  it ; "  a  sentiment  which  is  more  beautifully  expressed 
by  Cicero :  "  Historia  est  testis  temporum,  lux  veritatis, 
vita  memorise,  magistra  vita?,  nuntia  vetustatis."  I  shall 
permit  him  to  speak  for  himself,  judge  him  by  his  own  words, 
and  then  submit  his  so-called  statements  to  the  touchstone 
of  stubborn  facts.  The  author  thus  writes  : 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   P1NKNEY.  141 

"  With  this  view,  Mr.  Pinkney  was  sent  to  the  Court  of 
St.  James,  armed,  one  hand  with  a  falsehood,  and  the  other 
with  an  impudent  absurdity." — Vol.  II.,  p.  392. 

Again  :  "  On  the  10th  of  October,  Mr.  Pinkney  sent  an 
answer  to  Mr.  Canning's  letter,  in  which  an  amount  of  more 
than  twenty  pages  of  very  large  sized  octavo,  in  print,  was 
occupied  in  a  vain  effort  to  justify  the  negotiation  from  the 
charge  of  having  failed  from  his  neglecting  to  make  an  offer 
from  government  to  repeal  the  embargo ;  but  in  which, 
when  connected  and  compared  with  other  parts  of  the  cor 
respondence  respecting  the  negotiation,  he  appeared  mani 
festly  guilty  of  mistakes  or  misrepresentations. 

"  On  our  first  conference  (said  he  to  Mr.  Canning)  /  told 
you  explicitly,  that  the  substance  of  what  I  suggested  (viz. 
that  the  British  orders  being  repealed,  we  would  suspend 
the  embargo)  was  from  my  government ;  but  the  manner 
of  conducting  and  illustrating  it  was  all  my  own.  /  even 
repeated  to  you  the  words  of  my  instructions,  as  they  were 
upon  my  memory.  After  this,  however  doubtful  a  person 
might  be  as  to  the  assertion  of  Mr.  Pinkney  that  he  had 
told  Mr.  Canning  explicitly,  that  the  substance  of  his  sug 
gestion  was  from  his  government,  he  would  have  a  right,  at 
least,  to  conclude,  that  the  written  authority  on  which  Mr. 
Pinkney  so  confidentially  relied,  and  the  words  of  which  he 
said  he  had  repeated  to  Mr.  Canning,  did  at  least  contain  the 
words  to  bear  him  out.  When  those  very  instructions,  how 
ever,  come  to  be  inspected,  they  are  found  not  to  contain  one 
single  word  of  that  import ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  directions  to 
the  contrary.  For  his  instructions  on  this  head,  Mr.  Pink 
ney,  it  seems,  was  referred  by  the  Secretary  of  State  (Mr. 
Madison)  to  his  (Mr.  Madison's)  answer  to  Mr.  Erskine,  on 
the  subject  of  the  British  orders  in  council ;  and  the  words 
there  are  as  follows  :  '  The  United  States  are  well  warranted 
in  looking  for  a  speedy  revocation  of  a  system  which  is  every 
day  augmenting  the  mass  of  injury  for  which  the  United 


142  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINRNEY. 

States  have  the  best  claims  to  redress  ?  And  then,  contin 
ues  Mr.  Madison  to  Mr.  Pinkney  himself,  'still  it  is  to  be 
understood,  that  ivhile  the  insult  offered  in  the  attack  on  the 
Chesapeake  remains  unexpiated,  you  are  not  to  pledge  or 
commit  your  government,  to  consider  a  recall  of  the  orders  in 
council  as  a  ground  on  which  a  removal  of  the  existing  re 
strictions  on  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  with  Great 
Britain  may  be  justly  expected.'  Here,  then,  is  a  positive 
order  not  to  give  the  British  government  reason  so  much  as 
to  expect  that  the  embargo  should  be  repealed,  even  though 
the  orders  in  council  should  be  rescinded. 

t(  Thus,  Mr.  Pinkney  stands  convicted  of  misrepresenta 
tion  by  the  very  instructions  from  which  he  pretended  to  have 
repeated  the  words  to  substantiate  the  truth  of  his  assertion. 
No  such  words  were  in  it  \  but  words  directly  the  reverse } 
so  that  if  he  had,  as  he  asserted  he  did,  explicitly  told  Mr. 
Canning  that  the  substance  of  his  suggestions,  respecting 
the  repeal  of  the  embargo,  came  from  his  government,  he 
was  guilty  of  misrepresentation ;  and  if  he  did  make  such  a 
proposal,  he  was  no  less  guilty  of  a  breach  of  the  orders  of 
his  government,  which  forbade  him  to  give  any  such  expecta 
tion.  What  makes  the  matter  worse  was  that  Mr.  Pinkney 
himself,  in  his  letters  to  Mr.  Madison,  recognized  the  policy ; 
— in  one  of  the  month  of  May,  he  tells  him  that  he  had 
taken  care  to  make  no  proposal.  There  is  still  stronger  evi 
dence  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  conviction,  that  he  was  not  author 
ized  by  his  government  to  offer  the  repeal  of  the  embargo ; 
for  on  the  5th  of  June  he  wrote  another  letter,  in  which  he 
informed  Mr.  Madison  that  he  was  to  have  an  interview  with 
Mr.  Canning  in  a  few  days,  that  he  would  then  press  the 
suggestion  of  repealing  the  embargo  law.  '  But/  adds  this 
worthy  representative  of  his  honest  and  honorable  cabinet,  ( I 
shall,  for  obvious  reasons,  do  this  informally,  as  my  own 
act.'  And  further  on  in  the  same  letter,  he  says,  c  You  may 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  14'd 

be  assured  that  I  ivill  not  commit  our  government  ly  any 
thing  I  may  do  or  say' 

"  From  the  whole  of  this,  it  is  evident  that  Mr.  Pinkney 
not  only  entered  into  the  views  of  his  employers  to  cajole 
the  British  minister,  but  even  debased  himself  by  palpable 
falsehood,  to  cover  them  from  the  effects  of  that  indignation 
which  their  country  must  necessarily  feel,  on  finding  that, 
while  they  affected  to  negotiate,  they  only  meant  to  insult 
and  betray." 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  charge  and  the  proof.  Is  it  true, 
or  is  it  false  ?  It  is  charged  that  Mr.  Pinkney  exceeded  his 
instructions,  and  endeavored  to  deceive  Mr.  Canning  by  falsely 
quoting  from  them.  To  substantiate  the  charge  and  convict 
Mr.  Pinkney  of  a  palpable  disobedience  of  the  orders  of  his 
government  and  the  perpetration  of  a  gross  fraud  on  Mr. 
Canning,  this  writer  affirms  that  Mr.  Pinkney's  instructions 
were  contained  in  the  answer  of  Mr.  Madison  to  Mr.  Erskine, 
which  made  the  atonement  for  the  insult  offered  in  the  at 
tack  on  the  Chesapeake  a  sine  qua  non,  without  which  no 
expectation  of  the  suspension  of  the  embargo  was  to  be  en 
couraged,  even  though  the  decrees  in  council  should  be  re 
scinded.  By  a  reference  to  the  7th  vol.  of  State  Papers, 
p.  28,  it  will  be  seen,  that  the  letter  of  Mr.  Madison  to 
Mr.  Pinkney,  dated  April  4th;  1808,  contained  those  in 
structions.  The  atonement  for  the  insult  offered  in  the  at 
tack  on  the  Chesapeake  was  made  in  that  letter  the  sine 
qua  non.  Thus  far  the  writer  states  the  truth.  The  letter 
of  Mr.  Pinkney  to  Mr.  Canning,  dated  October  10th,  1808, 
is  adduced  in  evidence.  In  it  he  affirms,  that  in  their  first 
interview  he  had  notified  Mr.  Canning  of  the  intention  of 
our  government  to  suspend  the  embargo  in  case  the  orders 
in  council  were  repealed,  without  any  reference  to  the  affair 
of  the  Chesapeake.  And  that  this  notification  was  made  in 
obedience  to  the  instructions  he  had  received  from  gov 
ernment.  This  also  is  truly  stated.  These  instructions, 


144  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

tliis  author  maintains,  do  not  bear  Mr.  Pinkney  out.  They 
neither  sustain  him  in  the  assurance  given  to  Mr.  Canning, 
nor  the  assertion  that  in  giving  that  assurance  he  quoted 
from  them  correctly.  "  No  such  words  as  Mr.  Pinkney  pre 
tended  to  have  repeated,  were  in  his  letter  of  instructions, 
but  words  directly  the  reverse."  So  that  "if  he  had,  as 
lie  asserted  he  did,  expressly  told  Mr.  Canning  that  the 
substance  of  his  suggestions  respecting  the  suspension  of 
the  embargo  came  from  his  government,  he  was  guilty  of 
misrepresentation  ;  and  if  he  did  make  the  proposal,  he 
was  not  less  guilty  of  a  breach  of  the  orders  of  his  govern 
ment,  which  forbade  him  to  give  any  such  expectation." 

This  seems  to  be  a  very  formidable  impeachment.  It 
looks  very  like  the  truth.  Such  a  minute  and  scathing 
analysis  of  facts  and  dates,  would  seem  to  indicate  a  con 
scious  rectitude  of  purpose  and  a  deep  conviction  of  exact 
ness.  Before  I  proceed  farther  in  the  investigation,  I  beg 
leave  to  call  attention  to  another  fact  contained  in  this  letter 
of  October  10  (concerning  which  this  author  is  unaccounta 
bly  silent),  because  it  is  material  to  the  issue  between  us ; 
and  that  is,  that  this  first  interview  was  held  on  the  29th  of 
JUNE. 

Now  I  deny  that  the  letter  of  the  4th  of  April  or  the 
instructions  contained  in  it,  which  this  author  quotes  with 
so  much  seeming  exultation,  constituted  the  authority  on 
which  Mr.  Pinkney  made  his  overture  in  the  interview  of 
June  29th  ;  and  I  have  the  proof  to  sustain  the  denial.  In 
a  letter,  dated  April  30th,  which  may  be  found  in  Vol. 
VII.  State  Papers,  p.  32,  Mr.  Madison  thus  wrote  to  Mr. 
Pinkney  : 

"  In  order  to  entitle  the  British  government  to  a  discon 
tinuance  of  the  embargo,  as  it  applies  to  Great  Britain,  it 
is  evident  that  all  its  decrees  as  well  those  of  January, 
1807,  as  of  November,  1807,  ought  to  be  rescinded  as  they 
apply  to  the  United  States,  &c.  /Should  the  British  govern- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  145 

ment  take  tJiis.course  you  may  authorize  an  expectation,  that 
the  President  will  tuithin  a  reasonable  time  give  effect  to  the 
authority  vested  in  him  on  the  subject  of  the  embargo  laius" 
This  letter  was  received  anterior  to  the  interview  of  the  29th 
of  June,  and  subsequent  to  the  letter  of  April  the  4th.  It 
was  intended  to  control  the  overture  made  by  Mr.  Pinkney, 
and  it  did  control  it.  For  in  the  letter  of  Mr.  Pinkney  to 
Mr.  Madison,  dated  August  4th,  he  speaks  of  this  very  let 
ter  of  instructions  of  April  30th,  as  having  been  received  by 
him  previously  to  that  interview,  and  used  on  that  occasion. 
Mr.  Pinkney  tells  Mr.  Madison,  from  whom  his  instructions 
were  received,  and  to  whom  he  reported  his  official  conduct, 
that  he  made  his  proposal,  which  is  so  summarily  condemned 
by  this  writer  as  exceeding  his  instructions,  on  the  express 
authority  of  this  letter  of  the  30th  of  April.  See  State 
Papers,  Vol.  VII.  p.  43. 

What  now  becomes  of  the  assertion  that  no  such  words 
as  Mr.  Pinkney  stated  were  contained  in  his  instructions, 
were  to  be  found  in  them  ?     And  what  must  be  said  of  an 
author,  who  confounds  instructions  contained  in  a  letter  of 
one  date  with  those  of  another,  and  in  his  eager  partisan 
zeal  to  find  topics  of  bitter  accusation  never  chances  to  stum 
ble  upon  letters,  that  are  in  almost  immediate  juxtaposition, 
in  which  the  party  accused  states  what  he  had  done,  and 
why  he  had  done  it.     There  was  a  violatron  of  orders  of 
government  in  the  interview  of  June  29th,  says  this  author; 
and  a  contemptible  attempt  at  fraud,  inasmuch  as  the  in 
structions  of  April  4th  explicitly  required  the  settlement  of 
the  affair  of  the  Chesapeake  as  the  sine  qua  non.     There 
was  no  violation  of  the  orders  of  government  and  no  attempt 
at  the  perpetration  of  a  fraud,  says  truthful  history,  inas 
much  as  the  instructions  which  Mr.  Pinkney  expressly  de 
clared  he  followed  in  that  interview  are  contained  in  the 
letter  of  April  the  30th,  though  not  in  that  of  April  the  4th, 
and  are  rightly  quoted. 
10 


146  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

The  proof  upon  which  this  author  rested  «his  grave  alle 
gation,  is  supposed  by  him  to  be  strengthened  by  the  fact, 
that  in  two  letters  (one  of  May,  the  other  of  the  5th  of  June) 
Mr.  Pinkney  professes  his  intention  to  act  in  accordance  with 
the  instructions  of  April  the  4th.  But  this,  so  far  from  af 
fording  proof  that  Mr.  Pinkney  exceeded  his  instructions, 
proves  the  very  reverse.  It  shows  conclusively  that  he  ad 
hered  most  rigidly  to  them,  for  up  to  June  5th  there  is  de 
monstrative  evidence  that  the  letter  of  the  30th  of  April 
had  not  been  received.  In  that  very  letter  of  June  5th; 
which  this  author  had  the  audacity  to  quote,  Mr.  Pinkney 
acknowledges  the  receipt  of  the  letter  of  April  4th.  Of 
course  that  of  April  the  30th  could  not  have  been  received. 
This  letter  of  April  4th  was  the  only  one  acted  upon  up  to 
the  5th  of  June,  and  for  the  best  of  all  reasons,  because  it 
was  the  only  one  received  at  that  time.  The  letter  of  April 
the  30th,  which  totally  changed  the  ground  and  nature  of 
the  instructions,  was  received  however  before  the  interview 
of  June  the  29th,  as  Mr.  Pinkney  declares  in  his  letter  of 
August  the  4th. 

All  these  letters  were  accessible  to  this  anonymous  author, 
and  examined  by  him.  It  is  therefore  difficult  to  conceive 
of  the  disingenuousness  and  want  of  candor,  that  pervade  his 
work.  When  a  man  so  far  forgets  himself  and  his  own  sense 
of  honor  and  of  right,  as  to  hurl  accusations  of  the  most  of 
fensive  kind  against  the  official  conduct  of  another  ;  and 
stands  convicted,  by  the  very  authorities  he  adduces,  of  the 
grossest  ignorance  or  the  most  glaring  misrepresentations,  he 
entitles  himself  to  but  little  mercy.  His  ignorance  may 
shield  him  from  the  severer  condemnation,  but  it  cannot  save 
his  book  from  the  infamy  assigned  to  it  by  his  own  indorse 
ment  of  the  sentence,  "  that  if  a  history  wants  truth  it  wants 
every  thing  that  can  recommend  it."  How  emphatic  are 
the  words  of  Johnson,  "  There  is  such  a  thing  as  mistaking 
the  venom  of  the  shaft  for  the  vigor  of  the  bow.  It  is  not 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  147 

hard  to  be  sarcastic  in  a  mask.     If  we  leave  such  a  writer 
only  his  merits,  where  will  be  his  praise  ?" 

Mr.  Pinkney  was  not  insensible  to  the  fetters  that  re 
strained  him  in  his  correspondence  with  Canning.  He  was 
hampered  by  the  exceeding  difficulties  of  his  position.  Had 
he  been  free  to  address  Mr.  Canning,  as  at  a  subsequent 
period  he  -did  Lord  Wellesley,  in  the  strain  his  own  feelings 
dictated,  he  would  have  shown  that  in  sarcasm  he  was  not 
inferior  to  that  eminent  statesman,  as  he  had  proved  himself 
to  be  more  than  his  equal  in  power  of  argument  and  frank 
ness  of  disposition.  If  ever  honor  and  a  scrupulous  conscien 
tiousness  adorned  the  diplomatic  conduct  of  any  minister,  they 
did  that  of  the  gentleman  thus  bitterly  assailed.  I  exult- 
ingly  point  to  the  correspondence  hereunto  annexed,  and 
am  satisfied  that  it  will  be  found  upon  examination  to  be 
not  less  conspicuous  for  high,  honorable,  manly  feeling,  than 
pre-eminent  ability.  It  will  bear  a  favorable  comparison 
with  that  of  any  other  period  of  the  republic  marked  by 
equal  hazard,  delicacy  and  difficulty.  He  uniformly  main 
tained  that  the  embargo  was  "  a  measure  of  wise  and 
peaceful  precaution,  adopted  under  the  view  of  reasonably 
anticipated  peril."  He  was  a  profound  admirer  and  consist 
ent  supporter  of  the  embargo  and  the  non-importation  act ; 
and  without  entering  upon  the  discussion  of  its  merits  or  de 
mands,  I  beg  leave  to  introduce  to  the  public  for  the  first 
time  an  article  of  singular  force  and  ability  found  among  the 
few  surviving  papers  of  Mr.  Pinkney.  It  was  his  habit  to 
throw  off  hastily  his  views  of  such  important  measures,  and 
then  throw  them  aside.  Those  who  are  accustomed  to  re 
view  our  past  history,  will  remember  that  those  measures 
produced  at  the  time  a  profound  sensation  in  the  country. 
The  embargo  excited  the  Eastern  States  to  a  most  fearful 
degree,  and  the  non-importation  act  was  not  less  bitterly  op 
posed.  The  embargo  was  the  policy  of  Jefferson's  adminis 
tration,  and  was  laid  on  the  23d  of  December,  1807.  Its 


148  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

character  to  respect  and  its  title  to  support,  as  trie  wisest 
measure  that  could  at  that  time  be  adopted,  it  is  not  my 
province  to  discuss.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  it  was  repealed 
on  the  1st  of  March,  1809,  and  that  a  sort  of  substitute  for 
it  was  found  in  the  non-intercourse  act.  Mr.  Pinkney  thus 
wrote  : 

"Will  that  miserable  shadow  of  a  system,  called  the 
non-intercourse  act,  sink  even  below  its  own  inherent  weak 
ness,  as  we  know  it  will,  by  the  dislike  of  many  and  the  in 
difference  of  all,  be  such  an  instrument  as  our  government 
ought  to  wield  against  the  most  alarming  and  pernicious  of 
all  the  pretensions  of  a  jealous  and  encroaching  power — pre 
tensions  which,  if  once  allowed  to  gain  the  sanction  of  pre 
cedent,  can  only  be  beaten  down  by  force  ? 

"  The  embargo  was  a  noble  and  magnificent  effort,  suited 
to  the  extraordinary  occasion  by  which  it  was  suggested, 
and  adequate  if  persevered  in  to  all  its  purposes.  That  great 
measure  being  abandoned^  no  half-way  scheme,  of  the  same 
family,  can  ever  hope  to  stand  in  its  place,  and  be  ef 
fectual. 

"  The  non-intercourse  act  may  furnish  incentives  to  com 
mercial  frauds  and  fuel  to  faction — it  may  render  govern 
ment  odious  by  its  penalties,  and  its  cause  contemptible  by 
its  feebleness — it  may  display  anger  without  spirit,  and  a 
more  than  Christian  patience  under  wrongs  which  it  is  for 
ward  to  proclaim — it  may  combine  a  practical  submission  to 
injury  and  insult,  with  that  show  and  bustle  of  resentment 
which  produces  nearly  all  the  losses  and  more  than  the  pos 
sible  disgraces  of  war  without  its  glory  or  its  graces.  It  may 
do  all  this — but  the  United  States  can  never  stand  behind 

so  mean  a  contrivance  and  affect  to  call  it  resistance,  where 

* 
a  single  power  is  engaged  in  systematic  attempts  to  push 

others  from  the  seas  and  to  cover  them  with  dishonor. 

"  Nothing  seems  to  me  to  be  more  clear,  than  that  such  a 
measure  does  just  enough  to  demonstrate  that  we  ought  to  do 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  149 

more.  It  is  at  once  a  Manifesto — and  a  Capitulation.  It 
struts  at  the  same  time  that  it  truckles,  and  it  is  so  contrived 
that  what  it  says  is  the  severest  censure  upon  the  nothing 
which  it  does. 

"  Every  reproach  which  was  falsely  cast  upon  the  embargo 
belongs  by  indisputable  title  to  this,  its  crippled  and  bastard 
progeny.  While  France  and  England,  agreeing  in  nothing 
else,  were  in  conspiracy  to  persecute  our  commerce  and  vio 
late  our  neutral  rights,  the  embargo  was  not  only  our  natural, 
but  our  only  resource.  It  promised  to  be  successful  when 
war  promised  nothing  but  ruin — and  it  would  have  been 
successful,  but  that  time  and  prosperity  had  alloyed  our  vir 
tue  and  unfitted  us  for  such  a  trial.  If  we  had  elected  war, 
we  must  have  thrown  down  the  gauntlet  in  a  paroxysm  of 
romantic  courage  to  fy)th  England  and  France  ;  but  it  was 
our  business  to  perceive,  and  our  government  did  perceive,  that 
the  combination  of  those  two  gigantic  powers  in  the  work 
of  our  oppression,  made  any  experiment  for  reconciling  peace 
with  resistance  not  only  prudent  but  honorable.  Any 
other  measure  than  the  embargo  would,  in  such  circum 
stances,  have  been  madness  or  cowardice.  For  no  others  were 
in  our  choice  but  war  with  both  aggressors,  or  submission  to 
both ;  with  the  certainty  too,  that  that  submission  would  in 
its  progress  either  lead  to  war,  or  to  a  state  of  abject  de 
gradation." 

The  letter  of  President  Jefferson,  dated  August  5th,  1809, 
expressive  of  his  satisfaction  in  noting  both  the  matter  and 
manner  with  which  Mr.  Pinkney  discharged  his  public  duties; 
and  the  unwillingness  of  Mr.  Madison  to  allow  him  to  return 
to  the  United  States,  at  his  own  urgent  request,  are  his 
highest  vindication. 

Success  does  not  always  prove  the  measure  of  ability  and 
skill  employed  in  negotiation,  or  the  merit  of  the  claims  to 
be  adjudicated.  England  was  at  that  time  the  proud  mis 
tress  of  the  seas.  Her  sway  on  that  mighty  element  was 


150  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

undisputed.  She  was  battling  with  the  powers  of  France  in 
a  death  struggle.  She  was  pushing  forward  her  enterprising 
commerce  with  jealous  activity  on  every  sea  ;  and  she  looked 
with  evident  suspicion  and  displeasure  on  our  rising  maritime 
power.  It  was  with  England  thus  circumstanced  in  the  full 
flush  of  her  nautical  skill  and  prowess,  "  whose  drum  beat 
was  echoed  "  wherever  the  wail  of  ocean  was  heard,  that  Mr. 
Pinkney  had  to  treat  ;  and  the  question  was  one  which 
touched  at  once  her  pride  and  vaunted  supremacy.  His 
failure  does  him  no  discredit  as  a  statesman.  He  pursued 
his  work  with  a  steadiness,  industry,  firmness  and  ability, 
always  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  never  allowed  himself  to 
be  seduced  into  chicanery  or  duplicity  by  the  hopes  of  ulterior 
ends.  He  was  above  intrigue,  and  in  the  firm  belief  that 
honesty  is  the  only  becoming  national  policy,  he  stood  forth 
the  plain  honest  Republican,  in  the  midst  of  the  intrigues 
of  courts,  and  the  hollow  professions  of  those  who  repre 
sented  them. 

None  knew  better  than  he  how  to  scathe  and  rebuke  op 
pression  and  wrong,  or  could  see  more  thoroughly  through 
the  craftiness,  that  sometimes  disfigures  the  diplomatic  con 
duct  of  a  Canning  and  Wellesley.  He  bore  much  for  his 
country's  sake,  and  the  love  of  peace ;  for  he  was  emphatic 
ally  a  man  of  peace.  He  took  no  pleasure  in  sounding  the 
tocsin  of  war.  But  still  the  letter  of  December  31st,  1807, 
and  the  whole  of  his  diplomatic  correspondence  show,  that 
he  loved  not  peace,  when  it  called  for  the  sacrifice  of  national 
honor  and  consistency.  He  no  sooner  saw  that  negotiation 
must  prove  fruitless,  and  that  English  pride  and  arrogance 
must  be  humbled  before  justice  could  be  secured,  than  he 
returned,  and  aroused  his  countrymen  to  war. 

There  was  a  beautiful  combination  of  urbanity  and  firm 
ness,  courtesy  and  independence,  a  patient  spirit  of  endur 
ance,  and  keen  instinctive  repugnance  to  what  was  wrong, 
in  the  political  character  of  Mr.  Pinkney.  So  far  as  I  know, 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  151 

there  is  not  one  expression  which  need  cause  the  most  fas 
tidious  of  his  countrymen  to  blush,  or  give  occasion  to  the 
most  unrelenting  of  his  opponents  to  afford  even  a  momen 
tary  exultation. 

Mr.  Pinkney's  great  abilities,  and  unparalleled  patience 
of  investigation,  and  keen  discrimination  of  character,  and 
thorough  comprehension  of  all  the  great  questions  that  at 
that  time  agitated  and  disturbed  the  world,  are  not  in  my 
opinion  to  be  put  in  comparison  with  his  love  of  truth  and 
justice.  If  intrigue,  the  ability  to  prosecute  ends  in  them- 
selves  doubtful  or  manifestly  wrong  by  means  not  less  doubtful 
and  immoral,  be  constituents  in  the  character  of  a  states 
man  ;  then  Mr.  Pinkney  was  no  statesman.  He  scorned  to 
gain  an  end  by  tortuous  means ;  and  would  have  retired  in 
stantly,  in  disgust,  from  a  public  service,  whose  policy  he 
did  not  believe  to  be  just  and  upright.  His  moral  percep 
tions  were  most  delicately  attuned,  and  there  pervades  his 
whole  foreign  correspondence,  like  a  thread  of  silver  hue,  a 
most  admirable  love  of  justice  and  abhorrence  of  wrong. 
Let  the  correspondence  speak  for  itself,  and  I  am  silent. 
Were  a  witness,  above  and  beyond  his  correspondence,  neces 
sary  to  enforce  this  impression  of  his  character  upon  the 
heart  of  his  countrymen,  we  have  it.  *  It  was  a  British  states 
man  of  distinction  who  said  of  him  in  Parliament,  "  that  he 
was  a  man  of  sound  sense  and  judgment,  of  an  able  and 
astute  mind,  and  of  highest  reputation  ; — that  he  had  con 
ducted  himself  during  his  residence  in  the  country  in  a  man 
ner  most  honorable  to  himself  and  likely  to  benefit  both 
nations — at  all  times  taking  the  most  impartial  views  of  the 
different  interests  concerned,  his  conduct,  though  firm,  had 
been  most  conciliatory.  Firm  to  his  purpose,  and  able  to 
elucidate  the  subjects  under  discussion,  he  had  never  failed 
in  time,  punctuality,  or  mode  of  procedure  in  his  mission."- 
Olive  Branch,  p.  356. 

This  voluntary  and  noble  tribute  from  a  distinguished 


152  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

stranger,  expressed  with  a  nervous  comprehensiveness  of 
style  and  a  boldness  of  panegyric,  that  cannot  but  be  ad 
mired,  found  an  eloquent  echo  in  the  following  beautiful  tri 
bute  from  the  pen  of  Judge  Story.  The  accomplished 
American  jurist  speaks  of  him  as  "  one  who,  while  abroad, 
honored  his  country  by  an  unparalleled  display  of  diplo 
matic  science;  and  on  his  return  illuminated  the  halls  of  jus 
tice  with  an  eloquence  of  argument  and  depth  of  learned 
.  research  that  have  not  been  exceeded  in  our  day." — Story 
\  (Vol.  I.  276). 

A  single  glance  into  the  Neapolitan  mission — Mr.  Pink- 
\  ney's  management  of  affairs  on  that  occasion  has  been  the  topic 
of  severe  criticism  in  a  high  quarter.  A  writer  in  the  North 
American  (Vol.  XXI.  p.  272),  in  a  quite  elaborate  review, 
seems  to  think  that  he  was  caught  like  a  lion  in  the  toils  of 
a  wily  Neapolitan  functionary;  and  is  disposed  to  condemn 
him  for  the  exhibition  of  a  weak  credulity,  that  was  but  too 
easily  snared  by  the  crafty  and  designing.  But  what  are 
the  facts  in  the  case,  and  how  do  they  sustain  this  criticism? 
I  greatly  mistake  the  force  of  the  evidence,  if  it  does  not 
prove,  not  want  of  capacity  or  deficiency  of  shrewdness  in  the 
minister,  but  want  of  discernment  in  the  reviewer. 

The  object  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  mission  to  Naples  was,  to 
obtain  indemnity  for  losses  sustained  by  the  illegal  seizure 
and  confiscation  of  property  belonging  to  our  citizens  by  the 
Neapolitan  government. 

He  was  instructed  to  manifest  a  spirit  of  conciliation 
towards  the  government  of  Naples. 

That  Mr.  Pirikney  acted  with  great  promptitude,  se 
cured  an  early  audience,  and  followed  it  up  with  marked 
decision  and  firmness,  the  correspondence  conclusively  proves. 
He  set  forth  at  once,  in  a  letter  of  signal  ability,  published 
in  this  memoir,  the  demands  and  expectations  of  our  gov 
ernment.  The  discussion,  though  temperate  and  respectful, 
is  perfectly  conclusive.  It  leaves  no  ground  for  cavil ;  no 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  153 

room  for  dispute.  It  must  rank,  in  the  estimation  of  all 
disinterested  and  impartial  judges,  as  one  of  the  most  lucid 
and  masterly  expositions  of  the  subject  in  controversy  that 
ever  emanated  from  a  representative  of  our  glorious  Union 
abroad.  His  presence  in  the  kingdom,  he  very  well  knew, 
had  caused  great  uneasiness  and  perplexity.  The  smallness 
of  the  resources  of  the  Neapolitan  government,  and  the 
extent  of  our  claim,  were  well  calculated  to  agitate  and  em 
barrass  the  king  and  his  advisers.  Mr.  Pinkney  determined 
to  deepen  this  impression,  and,  instead  of  useless  confer 
ences  with  a  minister,  who  could  adjust  nothing  in  dispute, 
he  sent  in  his  letter,  setting  forth  in  language  not  to  be  mis 
understood,  and  with  an  array  of  arguments  not  to  be  an 
swered,  the  justice  and  equity  of  our  claim. 

To  this  letter  Mr.  Pinkney  received  no  reply.  He 
"pressed  the  marquis  for  an  answer,  and  insisted  that  if  he 
could  not  reply  to  it  immediately  he  would  name  the  time 
within  which  it  was  probable  he  could  do  so/'  Here  was 
no  slumbering  over  duty,  no  tame  submission,  no  weak  ir 
resolution.  What  was  the  answer  of  the  Neapolitan  min 
ister  to  the  strong  and  earnest  language  of  Mr.  Pinkney  ? 
How  did  he  justify  the  conduct  of  his  government  ?  He 
said  "that  an  immediate  answer  was  really  impossible,  and 
that  he  could  not,  without  running  the  risk  of  misleading 
Mr.  Pinkney,  fix  any  precise  time  for  the  giving  of  such  an 
answer  as  should  be  categorical."  When  asked  the  reason 
of  this,  "  he  observed  that  the  papers  had  been  scattered 
about  in  such  a  way  that,  with  all  the  diligence  they  could 
use,  they  had  not  been  able  to  collect  them ;  that  all  proper 
steps  had  been  taken  by  the  king's  government  for  obtaining 
the  papers,  &c." 

What  was  the  course  that  propriety,  delicacy,  and  na 
tional  decorum  demanded  of  our  minister  under  such  cir 
cumstances?  Doubt  of  the  word,  impeachment  of  the 
motive,  or  censure  of  the  conduct  pursued  by  his  Majesty's 


154  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

government  ?  Let  Mr.  Pinkney  be  heard,  and  we  rest  his 
vindication  upon  the  answer,  without  fear  of  the  result. 
"  Avoiding  extremes  of  every  kind,  I  have  sought  to  write 
and  speak  with  politeness,  but,  at  the  same  time,  explicitly 
and  firmly.  Without  being  studiously  conciliatory,  I  have 
forborne  all  menaces.  I  might  have  contrived  to  display  a 
more  active  and  zealous  importunity  than  my  letters  de 
scribe  ;  but  it  could  only  have  been  that  teazing  importu 
nity  which,  wanting  dignity,  and  unauthorized  by  usage,  has 
nothing  to  recommend  its  introduction  into  transactions  like 
this.  No  proper  opportunity  has  been  missed  to  urge  this 
government  to  a  favorable  decision.  The  reasons  suggested 
for  a  short  postponement  of  its  decision  are  such  as,  I  sup 
pose,  I  could  not  quarrel  with  without  putting  myself  in 
the  wrong.  They  are  perfectly  respectful  to  the  United 
States,  and  of  real  weight  in  themselves/' 

What  American  will  impeach  the  logic  or  morale  of  this 
reasoning  ?  We  had  an  unsettled  claim  against  a  weaker 
power.  That  power  solicited,  in  a  spirit  of  seeming  fairness, 
time  for  collecting  the  papers  in  evidence,  after  having  used, 
as  they  averred,  all  proper  diligence,  to  get  possession  of 
them.  The  plea  is  admitted  by  our  agent.  Who  will  con 
demn  the  deed  ?  and  what,  though  the  plea  turned  out  to 
be  deceptive  and  false,  a  mere  trick  of  diplomatic  finesse, 
is  it  admissible  to  seize  hold  of  a  subsequent  disclosure,  and 
urge  it  to  the  prejudice  of  the  party  negotiating  ? 

If,  as  the  reviewer  intimates,  Mr.  Pinkney  was  politely 
bowed  out  of  Naples,  and  a  trick  resorted  to,  to  rid  the 
government  of  the  presence  of  one  whom  they  had  good 
cause  to  dread,  it  is  to  his  lasting  honor  that  he  scorned  the 
imputation  of  an  unworthy  motive  to  the  government  of 
Naples,  upon  vague  suspicion,  and  dealt  with  her  with  a 
moderation  and  tender  policy  worthy  of  a  better  cause.  His 
letter  of  August  24th,  was  a  triumphant  vindication  of  our 
rights,  and  his  declining  to  proceed  in  extremis,  and  lending 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  155 

a  favorable  ear  to  what  appeared  to  be  reasonable  in  itself, 
just,  and  fair,  and  could  be  construed  into  no  want  of  re 
spect  for  the  United  States  ;  so  far  from  diminishing  his 
reputation  as  a  statesman,  and  exposing  him  to  censure,  is 
a  beautiful  illustration  of  his  characteristic  fairness  and 
honesty  of  deportment. 

The  reviewer  wrote  under  the  influence  of  light  thrown 
upon  the  transaction  by  subsequent  events.  He  saw  the 
ead  from  the  beginning.  The  treachery  and  duplicity  of 
the  Court  of  Naples  were,  at  the  time  he  wrote,  things  de 
monstrated.  But  it  is  due  to  Mr.  Pinkney  to  remember, 
that  duplicity  proved  is  quite  a  different  thing  from  duplic 
ity  assumed.  Mr.  Pinkney  was  compelled  to  act  upon  the 
alleged  reasons  of  the  government  of  Naples,  the  distinct 
and  positive  assurances  of  the  marquis ;  and  it  would  have 
been  rude  in  the  extreme  to  have  called  the  candor  and  fail- 
dealing  of  the  Neapolitan  government  in  question  upon 
mere  suspicion.  In  forming  our  judgment  upon  the  true 
merits  of  the  case,  and  deciding  upon  the  wisdom  and  pro 
priety  of  the  course  pursued  by  Mr.  Pinkney,  we  must  place 
ourselves  in  his  position,  and  banish  from  our  minds  facts 
that  were  subsequently  revealed. 

Mr.  Pinkney's  ability  in  discussing  great  constitutional 
questions,  was  often  tested  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
Union  and  on  the  floor  of  Congress  ;  and  he  always  spoke 
to  command  admiration.  There  was  a  loftiness  of  principle, 
a  broad  nationality,  a  dignity  and  gravity,  that  indicated  a 
beautiful  and  abiding  appreciation  on  his  part  of  the  vast 
importance  of  every  constitutional  discussion.  He  never 
opened  his  lips  in  the  examination  of  that  august  instrument 
but  he  seemed  to  behold  his  country's  honor  and  true  glory 
involved  in  the  issue.  He  always  merged  the  advocate  in 
the  comprehensive,  enlarged,  august  American  statesman. 
And  perhaps  on  no  occasion  did  he  display  his  profound 
acquaintance  with  the  great  principles  of  the  constitution, 


156  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

or  his  keen  analytic  logic,  or  pure  American  feeling  more 
conspicuously,  than  in  the  discussion  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate,  of  the  great  Missouri  question. 

Mr.  Pinkney,  it  has  been  shown,  was  but  a  short  time  in 
Congress.  While  a  member  of  the  lower  House  he  em 
barked  in  the  discussion  of  the  treaty-making  power.  Some 
of  the  first  men  in  the  country  figured  in  that  Congress, 
and  participated  in  that  debate.  John  Kandolph,  the 
pride  and  boast  of  Virginia,  followed  in  reply.  He  paid  the 
highest  compliment  to  the  eloquence  and  power  of  Mr. 
Pinkney,  but  wholly  discarded  his  view  of  the  question. 
The  whole  force  of  the  opposition  was  turned  against  this 
speech,  with  what  degree  of  correctness  we  leave  posterity 
to  decide.  This  was  the  first  time  that  Kandolph  and 
Pinkney  encountered  each  other ;  and  it  is  gratifying  to 
know,  that  the  conflict  was  characterized  in  the  beginning 
with  the  most  cordial  expressions  of  mutual  admiration  and 
respect,  and  ended  in  the  most  unlimited  homage  of  the 
former  to  the  powers  of  the  latter  ;  who,  after  the  delivery 
of  the  speech  on  the  Missouri  Compromise,  it  has  been  said 
to  me,  did  not  hesitate  to  accord  to  Mr.  Pinkney  the  rank 
of  the  first  constitutional  lawyer  and  statesman  in  the 
land. 

It  may  be  thought  that  I  have  consumed  too  much  time, 
and  put  myself  to  needless  trouble,  in  vindicating  Mr.  Pink 
ney' s  title  to  the  name  and  character  of  a  statesman.  But 
when  it  is  remembered,  that  so  many  years  have  passed 
since  he  served  the  country  in  that  capacity,  and  that  in 
the  only  biography  written  of  him  there  is  scarce  any  men 
tion  made  of  this  feature  of  his  character, — when  it  is  re 
membered  that  the  country  was  distracted  at  the  time  by 
the  most  rancorous  party  dissensions,  and  that  the  bitterness 
of  partisan  fury  was  let  loose  upon  him  ;  it  will  be  conceded 
that  his  life  could  not  properly  be  written,  or  his  character 
drawn,  without  a  calm  review  of  the  services  rendered,  and 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  157 

the  accusations  hurled  against  him.     The  most  eloquent  of 
New  England's  sons  and  the  first  of  her  living  lawyers,  Eufus 
Choate,  in  an  eulogy  upon  recent  departed  worth,  undertook 
to  limit  Mr.   Pinkney's  pre-eminence  to  the  Bar,  and  to 
throw  a  veil  over  his  qualities  as  a  statesman.     He  either 
had  not  looked  into  this  chapter  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  life,  or 
else  was  disposed  to  overlook  its  incontestable   claims  to  a 
nation's   gratitude  and  praise.     The  time  was,  when  New 
,  England  thought   and  spoke  differently  upon  this  subject. 
Her  own  Story  declared,  that  Mr.  Pinkney  "honored  the 
country  while  abroad  by  an  unparalleled  display  of  diplo 
matic  science,  and  on  his  return,  illuminated  the  halls  of 
justice  with  an  eloquence  of  argument  and  depth  of  learned 
research^  that  has  not  been  exceeded  in  our  day/'    The  North 
American  Eeview,  speaking  the  convictions  of  another  of  New 
England's  distinguished  sons,  declared  that  he  was  second  to 
none  of  the  great  names  opposed  to  him  in  all  the  qualities 
that  make  up  the  august  character  of  a  statesman.     Hundreds 
who  might  read  and  receive  as   oracular,   the   burning  elo 
quence  of  Kufus  Choate,  if  the  biography  of  William  Pink 
ney  were  wanting  in  fidelity  to  his  memory,  may  be  induced 
to  pause  and  consider  ere  they  give  too  easy  credence  to  the 
belief  that  Pinkney's  chief  excellence  was  that  of  a  lawyer, 
when  they  peruse  these  pages,  and  listen,  not  only  to  what 
Story  has  said,  but  recall  to  mind  a  fact  in  the  history  of  the 
past,  known  at  this  day  to  but  few,  that  as  early  as  1819 
he  aimed  the  first  decisive  blow  at  the  mad  spirit  of  nullifi 
cation,  and  brushed  away,  "  as  with  a  mighty  besom,  the 
cobweb  conceits  about  State  rights  and  State  sovereignty,"  at 
a  time,  too,  when  their  own  incomparable  Webster  was  by 
his  side  ;  and,  in   1820,  stood   forth  the  defender  of  the 
States  against  the  infringement  of  national  usurpation  ;  thus 
entitling  himself  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  his  country,  for 
so  poising  the  shield  of  the  constitution,  as  to  protect  each  of 
these  associate  powers  in  its   own   peculiar  and  appropriate 


158  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

jurisdiction.  I  may  close  this  portion  of  the  biography  with 
the  expression  of  surprise,  that  such  distinguished  testimony 
and  trumpet-tongued  facts  should  be  so  soon  forgotten,  or 
strangely  overlooked  in  her  present  eloquent  musings  of 
the  past. 

Vir  clarissimus,  amantissimus  Reipublicee  benefacere 
amplissimis  affectus,  sumrnis  ornamentis  honoris,  fortune, 
virtutis  ingenii  pneditus. 

The  annexed  memorial  was  written  by  Mr.  Pinkney,  and 
pronounced  at  the  time  by  a  distinguished  judge  to  "  be  a 
most  masterly  composition,  a  complete  and  unanswerable 
defence  of  neutral  rights  against  the  belligerent  pretensions 
and  encroachments,  whose  maxims  ivere  worthy  of  being 
committed  to  memory  by  every  statesman  in  all  countries" 


MEMORIAL  ON  THE  RULE    OF   THE   WAR  OF  1756. 

To  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
in  Congress  assembled. 

THE   MEMORIAL    OF    THE    MERCHANTS    AND    TRADERS    OF    THE 
CITY    OF    BALTIMORE. 

Your  memorialists  beg  leave  respectfully  to  submit  to 
your  consideration  the  following  statements  and  reflections, 
produced  by  the  situation  of  our  public  affairs,  in  a  high  de 
gree  critical  and  perilous,  and  peculiarly  affecting  the  com 
merce  of  their  country. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  late  war  between  Great  Britain 
and  France,  the  former  undertook  to  prohibit  neutral  na 
tions  from  all  trade  whatsoever  with  the  colonies  of  the  lat 
ter.  This  exorbitant  pretension  was  not  long  persisted  in. 
It  was  soon  qualified  in  favor  of  a  direct  trade  between  the 
United  States  and  these  colonies,  and  some  years  afterwards  was 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  159 

further  relaxed  in  favor  of  European  neutrals.  The  United 
States  heing  thus  admitted,  by  the  express  acknowledgment 
of  Great  Britain,  to  a  direct  trade,  without  limit,  between 
their  own  ports  and  the  colonies  of  the  opposite  belligerents, 
another  trade  naturally  and  necessarily  grew  out  of  it,  or  ra 
ther  formed  one  of  its  principal  objects  and  inducements. 
The  surplus  colonial  produce,  beyond  our  own  consumption, 
imported  here,  was  to  be  carried  elsewhere  for  a  market ;  and 
it  was  accordingly  carried  to  Europe,  sometimes  by  the  ori 
ginal  importer,  sometimes  by  other  American  merchants, 
either  in  the  vessels  in  which  the  importation  was  made,  or 
in  others.  In  the  course  of  this  traffic,  it  was  understood  to 
be  the  sense  of  Great  Britain,  and  was  explicitly  declared 
by  her  courts  of  prize,  that  although  she  had  not  expressly 
allowed  to  the  merchants  of  the  United  States,  by  the  letter 
of  her  relaxations,  an  immediate  trade  between  the  colonies 
of  her  enemies  and  the  markets  of  Europe,  a  circuitous  trade 
to  Europe,  in  the  production  of  these  colonies,  was  unexcep 
tionable  ;  and  nothing  more  was  necessary  to  make  it  so, 
than  that  the  continuity  of  the  voyage  should  be  broken  by 
an  entry,  and  payment  of  duties,  and  the  landing  of  the  co 
lonial  cargo  in  the  United  States.  During  the  greater  part 
of  the  late  war,  and  the  first  years  of  the  present,  this  trade 
was  securely  prosecuted  by  our  merchants,  in  the  form  which 
Great  Britain  had  thus  thought  fit  to  give  it. 

The  modification  of  a  traffic,  in  itself  entitled  to  be  free, 
was  submitted  to,  on  our  part,  without  repining,  because  it 
presented  a  clear  and  definite  rale  of  conduct,  which,  al 
though  unauthorized  in  the  light  of  a  restriction,  was  not 
greatly  inconvenient  in  its  practical  operation  ;  and  your  me 
morialists  entertained  a  confident  hope,  that,  while  on  the 
one  hand,  they  sought  no  change  of  system  by  which  the  as 
sumption  of  Great  Britain  to  impose  terms,  however  mild  in 
their  character  and  effect,  upon  their  lawful  commerce, 
should  be  repelled ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  desired, 


160  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

that  the  state  of  things  which  Great  Britain  had  herself  pre 
scribed,  and  which  use  and  habit  had  rendered  familiar,  and 
intelligible  to  all,  should  be  disturbed  by  oppressive  innova 
tions  ;  far  less  that  these  innovations  should,  by  a  tyrannical 
retrospection,  be  made  to  justify  the  seizure  and  confiscation 
of  their  property,  committed  to  the  high  seas,  under  the  pro 
tection  of  the  existing  rule,  and  without  warning  of  the  in 
tended  change. 

In  this  their  just  hope,  your  memorialists  have  been  fa 
tally  disappointed.  Their  vessels  and  effects,  to  a  large 
amount,  have  lately  been  captured  by  the  commissioned 
cruisers  of  Great  Britain,  upon  the  foundation  of  new  prin 
ciples,  suddenly  invented,  and  applied  to  this  habitual  traf 
fic,  and  suggested,  and  promulgated,  for  the  first  time,  by 
sentences  of  condemnation  ;  by  which,  unavoidable  ignorance 
Las  been  considered  as  criminal,  and  an  honorable  confidence 
in  the  justice  of  a  friendly  nation,  pursued  with  penalty  and 
forfeiture. 

Your  memorialists  are  in  no  situation  to  state  the  pre 
cise  nature  of  the  rules  to  which  their  most  important  in 
terests  have  thus  been  sacrificed  :  and  it  is  not  the  least  of 
their  complaints  against  them,  that  they  are  undefined,  and 
undefinable,  equivocal  in  their  form,  and  the  fit  instruments 
of  oppression  by  reason  of  their  ambiguity. 

Your  memorialists  know  that  the  circumstances  which 
have  heretofore  been  admitted  to  give  legality  to  their  trade, 
in  colonial  productions,  with  their  European  friends,  protect 
it  no  longer.  But  they  have  not  yet  been  told,  and  are  not 
soon  likely  to  learn,  what  other  circumstances  will  be  suf 
fered  to  produce  that  consequence.  It  is  supposed  to  have 
been  judicially  declared,  in  general,  that  a  voyage  under 
taken  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  into  the  United  States  the 
produce  of  the  belligerent  colonies,  purchased  by  American 
citizens,  shall,  if  it  appears  to  be  intended  that  this  produce 
shall  ultimately  go  on  to  Europe,  and  an  attempt  is  actually 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   P1NKNEY.  161 

made  to  re-export  and  send  it  thither,  be  considered,  on  ac 
count  of  that  intention,  as  a  direct  voyage  to  Europe,  and 
therefore  illegal,  notwithstanding  any  temporary  interruption 
or  termination  of  it  in  the  United  States. 

Your  memorialists  will  not  here  stop  to  inquire  upon 
what  grounds  of  law  or  reason  the  same  act  is  held  to  be 
legal  when  commenced  with  one  intention,  and  illegal  when 
undertaken  with  another.  But  they  object,  in  the  strongest 
terms,  against  this  new  criterion  of  legality,  because  of  its 
inevitable  tendency  to  injustice  ;  because  of  its  peculiar 
capacity  to  embarrass  with  seizure,  and  to  ruin  with 
confiscation,  the  whole  of  our  trade  with  Europe  in  the  sur 
plus  of  our  colonial  importations. 

The  inquiry  which  the  late  system  indicated  was  short 
and  simple,  and  precluded  error  on  all  sides  ;  but  the  new  re 
finement  substitutes  in  its  place  a  vast  field  of  speculation, 
overshadowed  with  doubt  and  uncertainty,  and  of  which  the 
faint  and  shifting  boundaries  can  never  be  distinctly  known. 

Intention,  as  to  the  object  of  our  colonial  voyages,  may 
be  inferred  from  numerous  circumstances,  more  or  less  con 
clusive.  To  anticipate  them  all  is  obviously  impracticable  ; 
and  of  course  to  guard  against  the  inference,  in  this  respect, 
which  British  captors  and  British  courts  may  be  disposed  to 
draw,  will  be  impossible.  Our  property  is  therefore  men 
aced  by  a  great  and  formidable  danger,  which  there  are  no 
means  of  eluding  ;  for  even  if  it  should  chance  to  escape  the 
condemnation  which  this  pernicious  novelty  prepares  for  it, 
the  wound  inflicted  upon  our  commerce  by  arrestations  on 
suspicion,  and  detentions  for  adjudication,  will  be  deep  and 
fatal.  The  efforts  of  our  merchants  will  be  checked  and  dis 
couraged  by  more  than  ordinary  inquisitions  ;  our  best  con 
certed  enterprises  broken  up,  without  th&  hope  of  retribu 
tion,  or  even  reimbursement  for  actual  costs,  upon  the  footing 
of  an  intention  arbitrarily  imputed  ;  and  the  only  alterna 
tive  which  will  be  presented  to  our  choice  will  be,  either  to 
11 


162  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

refrain  at  once  from  a  traffic  which  enriches  our  country 
while  it  benefits  ourselves,  or  to  see  it  wasted,  and  in  the 
end  destroyed,  by  a  noxious  system  of  maritime  depredation. 
Your  memorialists  are  the  more  alarmed  by  this  depart 
ure  from  a  plain  and  settled  rule,  in  favor  of  a  pliant  and 
mysterious  doctrine,  so  eminently  suited  to  the  accomplish 
ment  of  the  worst  purposes  of  commercial  jealousy,  because 
the  injurious  and  vexatious  qualities  of  the  substituted  rule 
must  have  been  known  to  those  who  introduced  it,  and  be 
cause,  if  these  qualities  did  not  recommend  it  to  adoption,  it 
is  difficult  to  conceive  why  it  was  adopted  at  all.  If  it  is 
meant  that  our  trade  to  Europe  shall,  notwithstanding  this 
rule,  be  allowed  to  continue  without  being  subjected  to  ex 
traordinary  difficulties,  operating  as  actual  reductions  and 
mischievous  restraints  ;  if  it  is  meant  that  a  few  facts,  known 
and  comprehended,  shall,  as  heretofore,  form  a  standard  by 
which  the  lawfulness  of  our  European  voyages  may  be  une 
quivocally  ascertained  ;  if  a  wide  range  has  not  been  designed 
for  the  inquiry  after  intention,  and  a  real  effect  expected  from 
that  inquiry  ;  if,  in  a  word,  the  late  regulation  has  not  been 
supposed  to  be  capable  of  bearing  on  our  trade  in  a  manner 
new  and  important,  we  should  hardly  have  now  been  called 
upon  to  remonstrate  against  a  change.  It  is  not  pretended 
that  the  rule  now  enforced  against  us,  is  levelled  against  any 
practice  to  which  we  may  be  supposed  to  have  lent  ourselves, 
of  disguising  as  our  own  the  property  of  the  enemies  of  Great 
Britain.  That  is  not  its  object  ;  and  if  it  were,  we  are  ena 
bled  to  assert,  solemnly  and  confidently,  that  our  conduct  has 
afforded  no  ground  for  the  injurious  suspicion  which  such  an 
object  would  imply.  The  view  is  professedly  to  regulate  and 
effect  our  traffic  in  articles  fairly  purchased  by  us  from  others; 
and  if  the  consequences  to  that  traffic  were  not  intended  to 
be  serious,  and  extensive,  and  permanent,  your  memorialists 
search  in  vain  for  the  motive  by  which  a  state,  in  amity  with 
our  own,  and  moreover  connected  with  it  by  the  ties  of  com- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKHEY.  163 

mon  interest,  to  which  many  considerations  seem  to  give  pe 
culiar  strength,  has  been  induced  to  indulge  in  a  paroxysm 
of  capricious  aggression  upon  our  rights,  by  which  it  dishon 
ors  itself  without  promoting  any  of  those  great  interests  for 
which  an  enlightened  nation  may  fairly  be  solicitous,  and 
which  only  a  steady  regard  for  justice  can  ultimately  secure. 
When  we  see  a  powerful  state,  in  possession  of  a  commerce 
of  which  the  world  affords  no  examples,  endeavoring  *to  in 
terpolate  into  the  laws  of  nations  casuistical  niceties  and  way 
ward  distinctions,  which  forbid  a  citizen  of  another  inde 
pendent  commercial  country,  to  export  from  that  country 
what  unquestionably  belongs  to  him,  only  because  he  im 
ported  it  himself,  and  yet  allow  him  to  sell  a  right  of  export 
ing  it  to  another  ;  which  prohibit  an  end  because  it  arises 
out  of  one  intention,  but  permit  it  when  it  arises 'out  of  two; 
which,  dividing  an  act  into  stages,  search  into  the  mind  for 
a  correspondent  division  of  it  in  the  contemplation  of  its  au 
thor,  and  determine  its  innocence  or  criminality  accordingly; 
which,  not  denying  that  the  property  acquired  in  an  author 
ized  traffic,  by  neutral  nations  from  belligerents,  may  become 
incorporated  into  the  national  stock,  and  under  the  shelter  of 
its  neutral  character,  thus  superinduced,  and  still  preserved, 
be  afterwards  transported  to  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  re 
ject  the  only  epoch  which  can  distinctly  mark  that  incorpo 
ration,  and  point  out  none  other  in  its  place  ;  which,  pro 
posing  to  fix  with  accuracy  and  precision  the  line  of  demar 
cation,  beyond  which  neutrals  are  trespassers  upon  the  wide 
domain  of  belligerent  rights,  involves  every  thing  in  darkness 
and  confusion  :  there  can  be  but  one  opinion  as  to  the  purpose 
which  all  this  is  to  accomplish. 

Your  memorialists  have  endeavored,  with  all  that  at 
tention  which  their  natural  anxiety  was  calculated  to  produce, 
to  ascertain  the  various  shapes  which  the  doctrine  in  question 
is  likely  to  assume  in  practice,  but  they  have  found  it  impossi 
ble  to  conjecture  in  what  way,  consistently  with  this  doctrine, 


164  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

the  excess  of  our  imports  from  the  belligerent  colonies  can 
find  its  way  to  foreign  markets.  The  landing  of  the  cargo, 
and  a  compliance  with  all  the  forms  and  sanctions,  upon 
which  our  revenue  depends,  will  not  so  terminate  the  voy 
age  from  the  colonies,  as  that  the  articles  may  be  imme 
diately  re-exported  to  Europe  by  the  original  importer.  But 
if  they  cannot  be  exported  immediately,  what  lapse  of  time 
will  give  them  a  title  to  be  sent  abroad,  and  if  not  by  the 
original  importer,  how  is  he  to  devolve  upon  another  a  power 
which  he  has  not  himself  ?  And  if  by  a  sale,  he  can  com 
municate  the  power,  by  what  evidence  is  the  transfer  to  be 
manifested,  so  as  to  furnish  an  answer  to  the  ready  accusa 
tion  of  fraud  and  evasion  ?  In  proportion  as  this  doctrine 
has  developed  itself,  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  invent 
plausible  qualifications,  tending  to  conceal  its  real  character 
from  observation.  It  has  accordingly  been  surmised,  that, 
notwithstanding  the  obstacles  which  it  provides  against  the 
re-exportation  of  a  colonial  cargo  by  the  importer,  such  a 
re-exportation  may,  perhaps,  be  lawful.  Attempts  on  his 
part  to  sell  in  the  United  States,  without  effect,  (which 
must  often  happen),  may,  it  is  supposed,  be  sufficient  to  save 
him  from  the  peril  of  the  rule.  But,  admitting  it  to  be  cer 
tain,  instead  of  being  barely  possible,  that  these  attempts 
would  form  any  thing  like  security  aganst  final  condemna 
tion,  it  is  still  most  material  to  ask,  how  they  are  to  afford 
protection  against  seizure  ?  By  what  documents  they  can 
be  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  those  to  whom  interest  sug 
gests  doubts,  and  whom  impunity  encourages  to  act  upon 
them  ?  The  formal  transactions  of  the  custom-house  once 
deserted  as  a  criterion,  the  cargo  must  be  followed,  through 
private  transfers,  into  the  warehouses  of  individual  mer 
chants  ;  and  when  proofs  have  been  prepaid,  with  the  utmost 
regularity,  to  establish  these  transfers,  or  the  other  facts 
which  may  be  deemed  to  be  equivalent,  they  are  still  liable 
to  be  suspected,  and  will  be  suspected,  as  fictitious  and  color- 


LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  165 

able,  and  capture  will  be  the  consequence.  For  the  loss  and 
damage  which  capture  brings  along  with  it,  British  courts  of 
prize  grant  no  adequate  indemnity.  Kedress  to  any  extent 
is  difficult ;  to  a  competent  extent,  impossible.  And  even 
the  costs  which  an  iniquitous  seizure  compels  a  neutral  mer 
chant  to  incur,  in  the  defence  of  his  violated  rights,  before 
their  own  tribunals,  are  seldom  decreed,  and  never  paid. 

Your  memorialists  have  thus  far  complained  only  of  the 
recent  abandonment,  by  Great  Britain,  of  a  known  rule,  by 
which  the  oppressive  character  of  an  important  principle  of 
her  maritime  code,  has  heretofore  been  greatly  mitigated. 
But  they  now  beg  leave  to  enter  their  solemn  protest  against 
the  principle  itself,  as  an  arbitrary  and  unfounded  pretension, 
by  which  the  just  liberty  of  neutral  commerce  is  impaired 
and  abridged,  and  may  be  wholly  destroyed. 

The  reasons  upon  which  Great  Britain  assumes  to  her 
self  a  right  to  interdict  to  the  independent  nations  of  the 
earth,  a  commercial  intercourse  with  the  colonies  of  her  ene 
mies  (out  of  the  relaxation  of  which  pretended  right  has 
arisen  the  distinction  in  her  courts  between  an  American 
trade  from  the  colonies  to  the  United  States,  and  from  the 
same  colonies  to  Europe)  will,  we  are  confidently  persuaded, 
be  repelled  with  firmness  and  effect  by  our  government. 

It  is  said  by  the  advocates  of  this  high  belligerent  claim, 
that  neutral  nations  have  no  right  to  carry  on  with  either 
of  the  parties  at  war,  any  other  trade  than  they  have  actually 
enjoyed  in  time  of  peace.  This  position  forms  the  basis 
upon  which  Great  Britain  has,  heretofore,  rested  her  sup 
posed  title  to  prevent  altogether,  or  to  modify  at  her  discre 
tion,  the  interposition  of  neutrals  in  the  colony  trade  of  her 
adversaries. 

But,  if  we  are  called  upon  to  admit  the  truth  of  this 
position,  it  seems  reasonable  that  the  converse  of  it  should 
also  be  admitted.  That  war  should  not  be  allowed  to  dis 
turb  the  customary  trade  of  neutrals  in  peace ;  that  the 


166  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

peace-traffic  should;  in  every  view,  be  held  to  be  the  measure 
of  the  war-traffic ;  and  that,  as  on  the  one  hand  there  can 
be  no  enlargement,  on  the  other  there  shall  be  no  restriction. 
What,  however,  is  the  fact  ?  The  first  moment  of  hostili 
ties  annihilates  the  commerce  of  the  nations  at  peace,  in 
articles  deemed  contraband  of  war ;  the  property  of  the  bil- 
ligerents  can  no  longer  be  carried  in  neutral  ships  ;  they  are 
subject  to  visitation  on  the  high  seas ;  to  harassing  and  vex 
atious  search ;  to  detention  for  judicial  inquiry  ;  and  to  the 
peril  of  unjust  confiscation  :  they  are  shut  out  from  their 
usual  markets,  not  only  by  military  enterprises  against  par 
ticular  places,  carried  on  with  a  view  to  their  reduction,  but 
by  a  vast  system  of  blockade,  affecting  and  closing  up  the 
entire  ports  of  a  whole  nation  :  such  have  been  the  recent 
effects  of  an  European  war  upon  the  trade  of  this  neutral 
country ;  and  the  prospect  of  the  future  affords  no  consola 
tion  for  the  past.  The  triumphant  fleets  of  one  of  the  con 
tending  powers  cover  the  ocean ;  the  navy  of  her  enemies 
has  fallen  before  her ;  the  communication  by  sea  with  France, 
and  Spain,  and  Holland,  seems  to  depend  upon  her  will,  and 
she  asserts  a  right  to  destroy  it  at  her  pleasure :  she  forbids 
us  from  transporting,  in  our  vessels,  as  in  peace  we  could, 
the  property  of  her  enemies ;  enforces  against  us  a  rigorous 
list  of  contraband  ;  dams  up  the  great  channels  of  our  ordi 
nary  trade  ;  abridges,  trammels,  and  obstructs  what  she  per 
mits  us  prosecute,  and  then  refers  us  to  our  accustomed 
traffic  in  time  of  peace,  for  the  criterion  of  our  commercial 
rights,  in  order  to  justify  the  consummation  of  that  ruin 
with  which  our  lawful  commerce  is  menaced  by  her  maxims 
and  her  conduct. 

This  principle,  therefore,  cannot  be  a  sound  one  ;  it  wants 
uniformity  and  consistency;  is  partial,  unequal,  and  delusive: 
it  makes  every  thing  bend  to  the  rights  of  war,  while  it  af 
fects  to  look  back  to,  and  to  recognize,  the  state  of  things  in 
peace,  as  the  foundation  and  the  measure  of  the  rights  of 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  167 

neutrals.  Professing  to  respect  the  established  and  habitual 
trade  of  the  nations  at  peace,  it  affords  no  shadow  of  security 
for  any  part  of  it :  professing  to  be  an  equitable  standard  for 
the  ascertainment  of  neutral  rights,  it  deprives  them  of  all 
body  and  substance,  and  leaves  them  only  a  plausible  and 
unreal  appearance  of  magnitude  and  importance  ;  it  delivers 
them  over,  in  a  word,  to  the  mercy  of  the  states  at  war,  as 
objects  of  legitimate  hostility;  and  while  it  seems  to  define, 
does,  in  fact,  extinguish  them.  Such  is  the  faithful  picture 
of  the  theory,  and  practical  operation  of  this  doctrine. 

But,  independent  of  the  considerations  thus  arising  out 
of  the  immediate  interference  of  belligerent  rights  and  bellig 
erent  conduct  with  the  freedom  of  neutral  trade,  by  which 
the  fallacy  of  the  appeal  to  the  precise  state  of  our  peace- 
trade,  as  limiting  the  nature  and  extent  of  our  trade  in  war, 
is  sufficiently  manifested,  there  are  other  considerations 
which  satisfactorily  prove  the  inadmissibility  of  this  principle. 

It  is  impossible  that  war  among  the  primary  powers  of 
Europe  should  not,  in  an  endless  variety  of  shapes,  mate 
rially  affect  the  whole  civilized  world.  Its  operation  upon 
the  prices  of  labor  and  commodities  ;  upon  the  value  of 
money;  upon  exchange ;  upon  the  rates  of  freight  and  insur 
ance,  is  great  and  important.  But  it  does  much  more  than 
all  this.  It  imposes  upon  commerce  in  the  gross,  and  in  its 
details,  a  new  character  ;  gives  to  it  a  new  direction,  and 
places  it  upon  new  foundations.  It  abolishes  one  class  of 
demands ;  creates,  or  revives  others  ;  and  diminishes,  or  aug 
ments  the  rest.  And,  while  the  wants  of  mankind  are  in 
finitely  varied  by  its  powerful  agency,  both  in  object  and 
degree,  the  modes  and  sources  of  supply,  and  the  means  of 
payment  are  infinitely  varied  also. 

To  prescribe  to  neutral  trade  thus  irresistibly  influenced, 
and  changed,  and  moulded  by  this  imperious  agent,  a  fixed 
and  unalterable  station,  would  be  to  say  that  it  shall  remain 
the  same,  when  not  to  vary  is  impossible  ;  and  to  require, 


168  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

since  change  is  unavoidable,  that  it  shall  submit  to  the 
ruinous  retrenchments  and  modifications  which  war  produces, 
and  yet  refrain  from  indemnifying  itself  by  the  fair  advan 
tages  which  war  offers  to  it  as  an  equivalent,  cannot  be  war 
ranted  by  any  rule  of  reason  or  equity,  or  by  any  law  to  which 
the  great  community  of  nations  owes  respect  and  obe 
dience. 

When  we  examine  the  conduct  of  the  maritime  powers 
of  Europe,  in  all  the  wars  in  which  they  have  been  engaged 
for  upwards  of  a  century,  we  find  that  each  of  them  has,  oc 
casionally,  departed  from  its  scheme  of  colonial  monopoly ; 
relaxed  its  navigation  laws,  and  otherwise  admitted  neutrals 
for  a  longer  or  shorter  space,  as  circumstances  required,  to 
modes  of  trade  from  which  they  were  generally  excluded. 

This  universal  practice,  this  constant  and  invariable 
usage,  for  a  long  series  of  years,  would  seem  to  have  estab 
lished  among  the  European  states  a  sort  of  customary  law 
upon  the  subject  of  it,  from  which  no  single  power  could  be 
at  liberty  to  depart,  in  search  of  a  questionable  theory  at 
variance  with  it.  Great  Britain  is  known  to  suspend,  in  war 
and  on  account  of  war,  her  famous  act  of  navigation,  to  which 
she  is  supposed  to  owe  her  maritime  greatness,  and  which, 
as  the  palladium  of  her  power,  she  holds  inviolable  in  peace; 
and  her  colonies  are  frequently  thrown  open,  and  neutrals  in 
vited  to  supply  them,  when  she  cannot  supply  them  herself. 
She  makes  treaties  in  the  midst  of  war  (she  made  such  a 
treaty  with  us),  by  which  neutrals  are  received  into  a  partici 
pation  of  an  extensive  traffic,  to  which  before  they  had  no 
title.  And  can  she  be  suffered  to  object,  that  the  same,  or 
analogous  acts  are  unlawful  in  her  enemies ;  or  that,  when 
neutrals  avail  themselves  of  similar  concessions  made  by  her 
opponents,  they  are  liable  to  punishment,  as  for  a  criminal 
intrusion  into  an  irregular  and  prohibited  commerce  ? 

The  weight  of  this  consideration  has  been  felt  by  the 
advocates  of  this  doctrine,  and  it  has,  accordingly,  been  at- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  169 

tempted  to  evade  it  by  a  distinction,  which  admits  the 
legality  of  all  such  relaxations  in  war;  of  the  general,  com 
mercial  or  colonial  systems  of  the  belligerents,  as  do  not  arise 
out  of  the  predominance  of  the  enemy's  force,  or  out  of  any 
necessity  resulting  from  it. 

It  is  apparent,  however,  that  such  relaxations,  whether 
dictated  by  the  actual  ascertained  predominance  of  the 
enemy's  force,  or  not,  do  arise  out  of  the  state  of  war,  and 
are  almost  universally  compelled,  and  produced  by  it  ;  that 
they  are  intended  as  reliefs  against  evils  which  war  has 
brought  along  with  it,  and  the  opposite  belligerent  has  just 
as  much  right  to  insist,  that  these  evils  shall  not  be  removed 
by  neutral  aid,  or  interposition,  as  if  they  were  produced  by 
the  general  preponderance  of  her  own  power,  upon  the  land 
or  upon  the  sea,  or  by  the  general  success  of  her  arms.  In 
the  one  case,  as  completely  as  in  the  other,  the  interference 
of  the  neutral  lightens  the  pressure  of  war  ;  increases  the 
capacity  to  bear  its  calamities,  or  the  power  to  inflict  them  ; 
and  supplies  the  means  of  comfort  and  of  strength.  In  both 
cases,  the  practical  effect  is  the  same,  and  the  legal  conse 
quences  should  be  the  same  also. 

But  whence  are  we  to  derive  the  conclusion  of  the  fact 
upon  which  this  extraordinary  distinction  is  made  to  turn  ? 
How  are  we  to  determine  with  precision  and  certainty,  the 
exact  cause  which  opens  to  us  the  ports  of  a  nation  at  war — 
to  analyze  the  various  circumstances,  of  which,  perhaps,  the 
concession  may  be  the  combined  effect ;  and  to  assign  to  each 
the  just  portion  of  influence  to  which  it  has  a  claim  ?  How 
easy  it  is  to  deceive  ourselves  on  a  subject  of  this  kind,  Great 
Britain  will  herself  instruct  us,  by  a  recent  example.  Her 
courts  of  prize  have  insisted  that,  during  the  war  which  ended 
in  the  peace  of  Amiens,  France  was  compelled  to  open  the 
ports  of  her  colonies,  by  a  necessity  created  and  imposed  by 
the  naval  prowess  of  her  enemies.  And  yet  these  ports  were 
opened  in  February,  1793,  when  France  and  her  maritime 


170  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY, 

adversaries  had  not  measured  their  strength  in  a  single  con 
flict  ;  when  no  naval  enterprise  had  heen  undertaken  by  the 
latter,  far  less  crowned  with  success ;  when  the  lists  were 
not  even  entered,  and  when  the  superiority  afterwards  ac 
quired,  by  Great  Britain  in  particular,  was  yet  a  problem  ; 
when  the  spirit  of  the  French  nation  and  government  was 
lifted  up  to  an  unexampled  height,  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
day,  and  by  the  splendid  achievements  by  which  their  armies 
had  recently  conquered  Savoy,  the  county  of  Nice,  Worms, 
and  other  places  on  the  Khine,  the  Austrian  Low  Countries, 
and  Liege.  It  would  seem  to  be  next  to  impossible  to  con 
tend  that  a  concession  made  by  France  to  neutrals,  on  the 
subject  of  her  colony  trade,  at  such  a  period  of  exultation 
and  triumph,  was  "  compelled  by  the  prevalence  of  British 
arms,"  that  it  was  "the  fruit  of  British  victories,"  or  the  re 
sult  of  "  British  conquest,"  that  it  arose  out  of  the  pre 
dominance  of  the  enemy's  force,  that  it  was  produced  by 
"  that  sort  of  necessity  which  springs  from  the  impossibility 
of  otherwise  providing  against  the  urgency  of  distress  inflicted 
by  the  hand  of  a  superior  enemy,"  and  that  "  it  was  a  signal 
of  defeat  and  depression."  It  would  seem  to  be  impossible 
to  say  of  a  traffic  so  derived,  "  that  it  could  obtain  or  did 
obtain,  by  no  other  title  than  the  success  of  the  one  bellig 
erent  against  the  other,  and  at  the  expense  of  that  very  bel 
ligerent  under  whose  success  the  neutral  sets  up  his  title." 
Yet  all  these  things  have  been  said,  and  solemnly  maintained, 
and  have  even  been  made  the  foundation  of  acts,  by  which 
the  property  of  our  citizens  has  been  wrested  from  their  hands. 
It  cannot  be  believed  that  the  laws  of  nations  have  intrusted  to 
a  belligerent  the  power  of  harassing  the  trade,  and  confiscating 
the  ships  and  merchandise  of  peaceable  and  friendly  nations, 
upon  grounds  so  vague,  so  indefinite,  and  equivocal.  Of  all 
law,  certainty  is  the  best  feature  ;  and  no  rule  can  be  otherwise 
than  unjust  and  despotic,  of  which  the  sense  and  the  appli 
cation  are  and  must  be  ambiguous.  A  siege  or  blockade  pre- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  171 

sents  an  intelligible  standard,  by  which  it  may  always  be 
known,  that  no  lawful  trade  can  be  carried  on  with  the 
places  against  which  either  has  been  instituted.  But  the 
suggestions  upon  which  this  new  belligerent  encroachment, 
having  all  the  effect  of  a  siege  or  blockade,  is  founded,  are 
absolutely  incapable  of  a  distinct  form,  either  for  the  pur 
pose  of  warning  to  neutrals  or  as  the  basis  of  a  judicial  sen 
tence.  The  neutral  merchant  finds  that,  in  fact,  the  colo 
nial  ports  of  the  parties  to  the  war  are  thrown  open  to  him 
by  the  powers  to  which  they  belong ;  and  he  sees  no  hos 
tile  squadrons  to  shut  them  against  him.  Is  he  to  pause, 
before  he  ventures  to  exercise  his  natural  right  to  trade 
with  those  who  are  willing  to  trade  with  him,  until  he 
has  inquired  and  determined  ivliy  these  ports  have  been 
thus  made  free  to  receive  him?  To  such  a  complicated 
and  delicate  discussion,  no  nation  has  a  right  to  call  him.  It 
is  enough  that  an  actual  blockade  can  be  set  on  foot  to  close 
these  ports,  and  that  they  may  be  made  the  objects  of  direct 
efforts,  for  conquest  or  occlusion,  if  the  enemy's  force  is,  in 
truth,  so  decidedly  predominant  as  is  pretended  to  be.  And 
if  it  is  not  predominant  to  that  point,  and  to  that  extent, 
there  can  be  no  cause  for  ascribing  to  it  an  effect  to  which  it 
is  physically  incompetent,  or  for  allowing  it  to  do  that  con 
structively,  which  it  cannot  do,  and  has  not  done,  actually. 
The  pernicious  qualities  of  this  doctrine  are  enhanced  and 
aggravated,  as  from  its  nature  might  be  expected,  by  the 
fact,  that  Great  Britain  gives  no  notice  of  the  time  when, 
or  the  circumstances  in  which  she  means  to  apply  and  enforce 
it.  Her  orders  of  the  6th  of  November,  1793,  by  which  the 
seas  were  swept  of  our  vessels  and  effects,  were,  for  the  first 
time,  announced  by  the  ships  of  war  and  privateers  by  which 
they  were  carried  into  execution.  The  late  decisions  of  her 
courts,  which  are  in  the  true  spirit  of  this  doctrine,  and  are 
calculated  to  restore  it,  in  practice,  to  that  high  tone  of  se 
verity  which  milder  decisions  had  almost  concealed  from  the 


172  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

world,  came  upon  us  by  surprise ;  and  the  captures  of  which 
the  Dutch  complained  in  the  seven  years'  war,  were  preceded 
by  no  warning.  Thus  is  this  principle  most  rapacious  and 
oppressive  in  all  its  bearings.  Harsh  and  mysterious  in  itself, 
it  has  always  been  and  ever  must  be  used  to  betray  neutral 
merchants  into  a  trade  supposed  to  be  lawful,  and  then  to 
give  them  up  to  pillage  and  to  ruin.  Compared  with  this 
principle,  which  violence  and  artifice  may  equally  claim  for 
their  own,  the  exploded  doctrine  of  constructive  blockade,  by 
which  belligerents  for  a  time  insulted  and  plundered  the 
states  at  peace,  is  innocent  and  harmless.  That  doctrine 
had  something  of  certainty  belonging  to  it,  and  made  safety 
at  least  possible.  But  there  can  be  no  security  while  a  ma 
lignant  and  deceitful  principle  like  this  hangs  over  us.  It 
is  just  what  a  belligerent  chooses  to  make  it — lurking,  un 
seen,  and  unfelt — or  visible,  active,  and  noxious.  It  may 
come  abroad  when  least  expected ;  and  the  moment  of  con 
fidence  may  be  the  moment  of  destruction.  It  may  sleep 
for  a  time,  but  no  man  knows  when  it  is  to  awake,  to  shed  its 
baleful  influence  upon  the  commerce  of  the  world.  It  clothes 
itself  from  season  to  season,  in  what  are  called  relaxations, 
but  again,  without  any  previous  intimation  to  the  deluded 
citizens  of  the  neutral  powers,  these  relaxations  are  suddenly 
laid  aside  either  in  the  whole  or  in  part,  and  the  work  of 
confiscation  commences.  Nearly  ten  months  of  the  late  war 
had  elapsed  before  it  announced  itself  at  all,  and  when  it 
did  so,  it  was  in  its  most  formidable  shape,  and  in  its  fullest 
power  and  expansion.  In  a  few  weeks  it  was  seen  to  lose 
more  than  half  its  substance  and  character,  and  before  the 
conclusion  of  the  war,  was  scarcely  perceptible.  With  the 
opening  of  the  present  war  it  reappeared  in  its  mildest  form, 
which  it  is  again  abandoning  for  another,  more  consonant 
to  its  spirit.  Such  are  its  capricious  fluctuations,  that  no 
commercial  undertaking  which  it  can  in  any  way  effect,  can 
be  considered  as  otherwise  than  precarious,  whatever  may 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  173 

be  the  avowed  state  of  the  principle  at  the  time  of  its  com 
mencement. 

It  has  been  said  that,  by  embarking  in  the  colony  trade 
of  either  of  the  belligerents,  neutral  nations  in  some  sort  in 
terpose  in  the  war,  since  they  assist  and  serve  the  belliger 
ent,  in  whose  trade  they  so  embark.  It  is  a  sufficient  an 
swer  to  this  observation,  that  the  same  course  of  reasoning 
would  prove  that  neutrals  ought  to  discontinue  all  trade 
whatsoever  with  the  parties  at  war.  A  continuance  of  their 
accustomed  peace  trade  assists  and  serves  the  belligerent  with 
whom  it  is  continued ;  and  if  this  effect  were  sufficient  to 
make  a  trade  unneutral  and  illegal,  the  best  established  and 
most  usual  traffic  would  of  course  become  so.  But  Great 
Britain  supplies  us  with  another  answer  to  this  notion,  that 
our  interference  in  the  trade  of  the  colonies  of  her  enemies 
is  unlawful,  because  they  are  benefited  by  it.  It  is  known 
that  the  same  trade  is,  and  long  has  been,  carried  on  by 
British  subjects;  and  your  memorialists  feel  themselves 
bound  to  state  that,  according  to  authentic  information 
lately  received,  the  government  of  Great  Britain  does  at  this 
moment  grant  licenses  to  neutral  vessels,  taking  in  a  propor 
tion  of  their  cargoes  there,  to  proceed  on  trading  voyages  to 
the  colonies  of  Spain,  from  which  she  would  exclude  us,  upon 
the  condition  that  the  return  cargoes  shall  be  carried  to 
Great  Britain,  to  swell  the  gains  of  her  merchants,  and  to 
give  her  a  monopoly  of  the  commerce  of  the  world.  This 
great  belligerent  right  then,  upon  which  so  much  has  been 
supposed  to  depend,  sinks  into  an  article  of  barter.  It  is 
used,  not  as  a  hostile  instrument  wielded  by  a  warlike  state, 
by  which  her  enemies  are  to  be  wounded,  or  their  colonies 
subdued,  but  as  the  selfish  means  of  commercial  aggrandize 
ment,  to  the  impoverishment  and  ruin  of  her  friends ;  as  an 
engine  by  which  Great  Britain  is  to  be  lifted  up  to  a  vast 
height  of  prosperity,  and  the  trade  of  neutrals  crippled,  and 
crushed,  and  destroyed.  Such  acts  are  a  most  intelligible 


174  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

commentary  upon  the  principle  in  question.  They  show  that 
it  is  a  hollow  and  fallacious  principle,  susceptible  of  the 
worst  abuse,  and  incapable  of  a  just  and  honorable  applica 
tion.  They  show  that  in  the  hands  of  a  great  maritime 
state,  it  is  not  in  its  ostensible  character  of  a  weapon  of  hos- 
lility  that  it  is  prized,  but  rather  as  one  of  the  means  of 
establishing  an  unbounded  monopoly,  by  which  every  enter 
prise,  calculated  to  promote  national  wealth  and  power,  shall 
be  made  to  begin  and  end  in  Great  Britain  alone.  Such 
acts  may  well  be  considered  as  pronouncing  the  condemna 
tion  of  the  principle  against  which  we  contend,  as  with 
drawing  from  it  the  only  pretext  upon  which  it  is  possible 
to  rest  it. 

Great  Britain  does  not  pretend  that  this  principle  has  any 
warrant  in  the  opinions  of  writers  on  public  law.  She  does 
not  pretend,  and  cannot  pretend,  that  it  derives  any  counte 
nance  from  the  conduct  of  other  nations.  She  is  confessedly 
solitary  in  the  use  of  this  invention,  by  which  rapacity  is  sys 
tematized,  and  a  state  of  neutrality  and  war  are  made  sub 
stantially  the  same.  In  this  absence  of  all  other  authority, 
her  courts  have  made  an  appeal  to  her  own  early  example, 
for  the  justification  of  her  own  recent  practice.  Your  memo 
rialists  join  in  that  appeal,  as  affording  the  mosfr  conclusive 
and  authoritative  reprobation  of  the  practice  which  it  is  in 
tended  to  support  by  it. 

It  would  be  easy  to  show,  by  an  examination  of  the  dif 
ferent  treaties  to  which  Great  Britain  has  been  a  party  from 
times  long  past,  that  this  doctrine  is  a  modern  usurpation. 
It  would  be  equally  easy  to  show,  that  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  last  century,  her  statesmen  and  lawyers  uniformly 
disavowed  it,  either  expressly  or  tacitly.  But  it  is  to  a  re 
view  of  judicial  examples,  of  all  others  the  most  weighty  and 
solemn,  that  your  memorialists  propose  to  confine  them 
selves. 

In  the  war  of  1744,  in  which  Great  Britain  had  the  pow- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  175 

er,  if  she  had  thought  fit  to  exert  it,  to  exclude  the  neutral 
states  from  the  colony  trade  of  France  and  Spain,  her  high 
court  of  appeals  decided  that  the  trade  was  lawful,  and  re 
leased  such  vessels  as  had  been  found  engaged  in  it. 

In  the  war  which  soon  followed  the  peace  of  Aix  la 
Chapelle,  Great  Britain  is  supposed  to  have  first  acted  upon 
the  pretension  that  such  a  trade  was  unlawful,  as  being  shut 
against  neutrals  in  peace.  And  it  is  certain  that,  during  the 
whole  of  that  war,  her  courts  of  prize  did  condemn  #11  neu 
tral  vessels  taken  in  the  prosecution  of  that  trade,  together 
with  their  cargoes,  whether  French  or  neutral.  These  con 
demnations,  however,  proceeded  upon  peculiar  grounds.  In 
the  seven  years'  war  France  did  not  throw  open  to  neutrals 
the  traffic  of  her  colonies.  She  established  no  free  ports  in 
the  east,  or  in  the  west,  with  which  foreign  vessels  could  be 
permitted  to  trade,  either  generally  or  occasionally  as  sucli. 
Her  first  practice  was  simply  to  grant  special  licenses  to  par 
ticular  neutral  vessels,  principally  Dutch,  and  commonly 
chartered  by  Frenchmen,  to  make,  under  the  usual  restric 
tions,  particular  trading  voyages  to  the  colonies.  These  li 
censes  furnished  the  British  courts  with  a  peculiar  reason  for 
condemning  vessels  sailing  under  them,  viz.,  "  that  they  be 
came  in  virtue  of  them  the  adopted  or  naturalized  vessels  of 
France! ' 

As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  this  effect  was  imputed  to 
theso  licenses  they  were  discontinued,  or  pretended  to  be  so  ; 
but  the  discontinuance,  whether  real  or  supposed,  produced 
no  change  in  the  conduct  of  Great  Britain  ;  for  neutral  ves 
sels,  employed  in  this  trade,  were  captured  and  condemned 
as  before.  The  grounds  upon  which  they  continued  to  be 
so  captured  and  condemned,  may  best  be  collected  from  the 
reasons  subjoined  to  the  printed  cases  in  the  prize  causes  de 
cided  by  the  high  court  of  admiralty  (in  which  Sir  Thomas 
Salisbury  at  that  time  presided),  and  by  the  lords  commision- 
ers  of  appeals,  between  1757  and  1760. 


176  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

In  the  case  of  the  America  (which  was  a  Dutch  ship, 
bound  from  St.  Domingo  to  Holland,  with  the  produce  of  that 
island  belonging  to  French  subjects,  by  whom  the  vessel  had 
been  chartered),  the  reason  stated  in  the  printed  case  is,  "that 
the  ship  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  French  ship  (coming  from 
St.  Domingo),  for  by  the  laws  of  France  no  foreign  ship  can 
trade  in  the  French  West  Indies." 

In  the  case  of  the  Snip,  the  reason  (assigned  by  Sir 
George  Hays  and  Mr.  Pratt,  afterwards  Lord  Camden)  is, 
"  for  that  the  Snip  (though  once  the  property  of  Dutchmen) 
being  employed  in  carrying  provisions  to,  and  goods  from  a 
French  colony,  thereby  'became  a  French  ship,  and  as  such 
was  justly  condemned." 

It  is  obvious  that  the  reason,  in  the  case  of  the  America, 
proceeds  upon  a  presumption,  that  as  the  trade  was,  by  the 
standing  laws  of  France,  even  up  to  that  moment,  confined 
to  French  ships,  any  ship  found  employed  in  it  must  be  a 
French  ship.  The  reason  in  the  other  case  does  not  rest 
upon  this  idle  presumption,  but  takes  another  ground  ;  for  it 
states,  that  by  the  reason  of  the  trade  in  which  the  vessel 
was  employed,  she  became  a  French  vessel. 

It  is  manifest  that  this  is  no  other  than  the  first  idea  of 
adoption  or  naturalization,  accommodated  to  the  change  at 
tempted  to  be  introduced  into  the  state  of  things  by  the  ac 
tual  or  pretended  discontinuance  of  the  special  licenses. 
What  then  is  the  amount  of  the  doctrine  of  the  seven  years' 
war,  in  the  utmost  extent  which  it  is  possible  to  ascribe  to 
it  ?  It  is  in  substance  no  more  than  this,  that  as  France  did 
not,  at  any  period  of  that  war,  abandon,  or  in  any  degree 
suspend,  the  principle  of  colonial  monopoly,  or  the  system 
arising  out  of  it,  a  neutral  vessel  found  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  trade,  which,  according  to  that  principle  and  that  system 
still  continuing  in  force,  could  only  be  a  French  trade  and 
open  to  French  vessels,  either  became,  or  was  legally  to  be 
presumed  to  be  a  French  vessel.  It  cannot  be  necessary  to 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  177 

show  that  this  doctrine  differs  essentially  from  the  principle 
of  the  present  day  ;  but  even  if  it  were  otherwise,  the  prac 
tice  of  that  war,  whatever  it  might  be,  was  undoubtedly  con 
trary  to  that  of  the  war  of  1744,  and  as  contrasted  with  it, 
will  not  be  considered  by  those  who  have  at  all  attended  to 
the  history  of  these  two  periods,  as  entitled  to  any  peculiar 
veneration.  The-  effects  of  that  practice  were  almost  wholly 
confined  to  the  Dutch,  who  had  rendered  themselves  extreme 
ly  obnoxious  to  Great  Britain,  by  the  selfish  and  pusillanimous 
policy,  as  it  was  falsely  called,  which  enabled  them  during 
the  seven  years'  war  to  profit  of  the  troubles  of  the  rest  of 
Europe. 

In  the  war  of  1744,  the  neutrality  of  the  Dutch,  while 
it  continued,  had  in  it  nothing  of  complaisance  to  France  : 
they  furnished  from  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  on 
account  of  the  pragmatic  sanction,  succors  to  the  confede 
rates  ;  declared  openly,  after  a  time,  in  favor  of  the  Queen 
of  Hungary  ;  and  finally  determined  upon  and  prepared  for 
war,  by  sea  and  land.  Great  Britain,  of  course,  had  no  in 
ducement  in  that  war  to  hunt  after  any  hostile  principle,  by 
the  operations  of  which  the  trade  of  the  Dutch  might  be  ha 
rassed,  or  the  advantage  of  their  neutral  position,  while  it 
lasted,  defeated.  In  the  war  of  1756  she  had  this  induce 
ment  in  its  utmost  strength.  Independent  of  the  commer 
cial  rivalry  existing  between  the  two  nations,  the  Dutch  had 
excited  the  undisguised  resentment  of  Great  Britain,  by  de 
clining  to  furnish  against  France  the  succors  stipulated  by 
treaty  ;  by  constantly  supplying  France  with  naval  and 
warlike  stores,  through  the  medium  of  a  trade  systemat 
ically  pursued  by  the  people,  and  countenanced  by  the  gov 
ernment  ;  by  granting  to  France,  early  in  1757,  a  free  pas 
sage  through  Namur  and  Maestricht,  for  the  provisions,  am 
munition,  and  artillery,  belonging  to  the  army  destined  to  act 
against  the  territories  of  Prussia,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Low  Countries ;  and*by  the  indifference  with  which  they 
12 


178  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

saw  Nieuport  and  Ostend  surrendered  into  the  hands  of 
France,  by  the  court  of  Vienna,  which  Great  Britain  repre 
sented  to  be  contrary  to  the  Barrier  treaty  and  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht.  Without  entering  into  the  sufficiency  of  these 
grounds  of  dissatisfaction,  which  undoubtedly  had  a  great 
influence  on  the  conduct  of  Great  Britain  towards  the 
Dutch,  from  1757  until  the  peace  of  1763,  it  is  manifest 
that  this  very  dissatisfaction,  little  short  of  a  disposition  to 
open  war,  and  frequently  on  the  eve  of  producing  it,  takes 
away,  in  a  considerable  degree,  from  the  authority  of  any 
practice  to  which  it  may  be  supposed  to  have  led,  as  tending 
to  establish  a  rule  of  the  public  law  of  Europe.  It  may  not 
be  improper  to  observe  too,  that  the  station  occupied  by 
Great  Britain  in  the  seven  years7  war  (as  proud  a  one  as 
any  country  ever  did  occupy),  compared  with  that  of  the 
other  European  powers,  was  not  exactly  calculated  to  make 
the  measures  which  her  resentments  against  Holland  or  her 
views  against  France  might  dictate^  peculiarly  respectful  to 
the  general  rights  of  neutrals.  In  the  north,  Kussia  and 
Sweden  were  engaged  in  the  confederacy  against  Prussia, 
and  were,  of  course,  entitled  to  no  consideration  in  this  re 
spect.  The  government  of  Sweden  was,  besides,  weak  and 
impotent.  Denmark,  it  is,  true,  took  no  part  in  the  war, 
but  she  did  not  suffer  by  the  practice  in  question.  Besides, 
all  these  powers  combined  would  have  been  as  nothing 
against  the  naval  strength  of  Great  Britain  in  175S.  As  to 
Spain,  she  could  have  no  concern  in  the  question,  and  at 
length  became  involved  in  the  war  on  the  side  of  France. 
Upon  the  whole,  in  the  war  of  1756,  Great  Britain  had  the 
power  to  be  unjust,  and  irresistible  temptations  to  abuse  it. 
In  that  of  1744,  her  power  was,  perhaps,  equally  great,  but 
every  thing  was  favorable  to  equity  and  moderation.  The 
example  afforded  on  this  subject,  therefore,  by  the  first  war, 
has  far  better  titles  to  respect  than  that  furnished  by 
the  last. 


LIFE   OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  179 

In  the  American  war  the  practice  and  decisions  on  this 
point,  followed  those  of  the  war  of  1744. 

The  question  first  came  before  the  lords  of  appeal  in  Ja 
nuary,  1782,  in  the  Danish  cases  of  the  Tiger,  Copenhagen, 
and  others,  captured  in  October,  1783,  and  condemned  at 
St.  Kitts,  in  December  following.  The  grounds  on  which 
the  captors  relied  for  condemnation,  in  the  Tiger,  as  set 
forth  at  the  end  of  the  respondent's  printed  case,  were, 
"  for  that  the  ship,  having  been  trading  to  Cape  Francois, 
where  none  but  French  ships  are  allowed  to  carry  on  any 
traffic,  and  having  been  laden  at  the  same  time  of  the 
capture,  with  the  produce  of  the  French  part  of  the  island 
of  St.  Domingo,  put  on  board  at  Cape  Francois,  and  both 
ship  and  cargo  taken  confessedly  coming  from  hence, 
must  (pursuant  to  precedents  in  the  like  cases  in  the  last 
war),  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  be  deemed  a  ship  and  goods 
belonging  to  the  French,  or  at  least  adopted,  and  natur 
alized  as  such." 

In  the  Copenhagen,  the  captor's  reasons  are  thus  given  : 

"  1st.  Because  it  is  allowed  that  the  ship  was  destined, 
with  her  cargo,  to  the  island  of  Guadaloupe,  and  no  other 
place." 

"  2dly.  Because  it  is  contrary  to  the  established  rule  of 
general  law.  to  admit  any  neutral  ship  to  go  to,  and  trade 
at,  a  port  belonging  to  a  colony  of  the  enemy,  to  which  such 
neutral  ship  could  not  have  freely  traded  in  time  of  peace." 

On  the  22d  of  January,  1782,  these  causes  came  on  for 
hearing  before  the  lords  of  appeal,  who  decreed  restitution 
in  all  of  them  :  thus  in  the  most  solemn  and  explicit  man 
ner  disavowing  and  rejecting  the  pretended  rules  of  the  law 
of  nations,  upon  which  the  captors  relied  •  the  first  of  which 
was  literally  borrowed  from  the  doctrine  of  the  war  of  1756, 
and  the  last  of  which  is  that  very  rule  on  which  Great  Bri 
tain  now  relies. 

It  is  true,  that  in  these  cases  the  judgment  of  the  lords 


180  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY, 

was  pronounced  upon  one  shape  only  of  the  colony  trade  of 
France,  as  carried  on  by  neutrals  ;  that  is  to  say,  a  trade 
between  the  colony  of  France  and  that  of  the  country  of 
the  neutral  shipper.  But,  as  no  distinction  was  supposed 
to  exist,  in  point  of  principle,  between  the  different  modifi 
cations  of  the  trade,  and  as  the  judgment  went  upon  gene 
ral  grounds  applicable  to  the  entire  subject,  we  shall  not  be 
thought  to  overrate  its  effect  and  extent,  when  we  represent 
it  as  a  complete  rejection  both  of  the  doctrine  of  the  seven 
years'  war,  and  of  that  modern  principle  by  which  it  has 
been  attempted  to  replace  it.  But  at  any  rate,  the  subse 
quent  decrees  of  the  same  high  tribunal  did  go  that  length. 
Without  enumerating  the  cases  of  various  descriptions,  in 
volving  the  legality  of  the  trade  in  all  its  modes,  which  were 
favorably  adjudged  by  the  lords  of  appeal  after  the  Ameri 
can  peace,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  mention  the  case  of  the 
Vervagting,  decided  by  them  in  1785  and  1786.  This  was 
the  case  of  a  Danish  ship  laden  with  a  cargo  of  drygoods 
and  provisions,  with  which  she  was  bound  on  a  voyage  from 
Marseilles  to  Martinique  and  Cape  Francois,  where  she  was 
to  take  in  for  Europe  a  return  cargo  of  West  India  produce. 
The  ship  was  not  proceeded  against,  but  the  cargo,  which 
was  claimed  for  merchants  of  Ostend,  was  condemned  as 
enemy's  property  (as  in  truth  it  was)  by  the  vice-admiralty 
of  Antigua,  subject  to  the  payment  of  freight,  pro  rata 
itineris,  or  rather  for  the  whole  of  the  outward  voyage.  On 
appeal,  as  to  the  cargo,  the  lords  of  appeal,  on  the  8th  of 
March,  1785,  reversed  the  condemnation,  and  ordered  fur 
ther  proof  of  the  property  to  be  produced  within  three 
months.  On  the  28th  of  March,  1786,  no  further  proof 
having  been  exhibited,  and  the  proctor  for  the  claimants 
daclaring  that  he  should  exhibit  none,  the  lords  condemned 
the  cargo,  and  on  the  same  day  reversed  the  decree  below, 
giving  freight,  pro  rata  itineris  (from  which  the  neutral 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINRNEY.  181 

master  had  appealed),  and  decreed  freight  generally,  and  the 
costs  of  the  appeal. 

It  is  impossible  that  a  judicial  opinion  could  go  more 
conclusively  to  the  whole  question  on  the  colony  trade  than 
this  ;  for  it  not  only  disavows  the  pretended  illegality  of 
neutral  interpositions  in  that  trade,  even  directly  between 
France  and  her  colonies  (the  most  exceptionable  form,  it  is 
said,  in  which  that  interposition  could  present  itself),  it  not 
only  denies  that  property  engaged  in  such  a  trade  is,  on  that 
account,  liable  to  confiscation  (inasmuch  as,  after  having 
reversed  the  condemnation  of  the  cargo,  pronounced  below, 
it  proceeds  afterwards  to  condemn  it  merely  for  ivant  of 
fiirtJier  proof  as  to  the  property),  but  it  holds  that  the  trade 
is  so  unquestionably  lawful  to  neutrals,  as  not  even  to  put 
in  jeopardy  the  claim  to  freight  for  that  part  of  the  voyage 
which  had  not  yet  begun,  and  which  the  party  had  not  yet 
put  himself  in  a  situation  to  begin.  The  force  of  this,  and 
the  other  British  decisions  produced  by  the  American  war, 
will  not  be  avoided,  by  suggesting  that  there  was  any  thing 
peculiarly  favorable  in  the  time  when,  or  the  manner  in  which, 
France  opened  her  colony  trade  to  neutrals  on  that  occasion. 
Something  of  that  sort,  however,  has  been  said.  We  find 
the  following  language  in  a  very  learned  opinion  on  this 
point  :  "  It  is  certainly  true,  that  in  the  last  war  (the  Ame 
rican  war),  many  decisions  took  place  which  then  pronounced, 
that  such  a  trade  between  France  and  her  colonies  was  not 
considered  as  an  unneutral  commerce  ;  but  under  what  cir 
cumstances  ?  It  was  understood  that  France,  in  opening 
her  colonies  during  the  war,  declared,  that  this  was  not  done 
with  a  temporary  view  relative  to  the  war,  but  on  a  general 
permanent  purpose  of  altering  her  colonial  system,  and  of 
admitting  foreign  vessels,  universally,  and  at  all  times  to  a 
participation  of  that  commerce ;  taking  that  to  be  the  fact 
(however  suspicious  its  commencement  might  be,  during  the 
actual  existence  of  a  war),  there  was  no  ground  to  say,  that 


182  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

neutrals  were  not  carrying  on  a  commerce  as  ordinary  as  any 
other  in  which  they  could  be  engaged ;  and  therefore  in  the 
case  of  the  Vervagting,  and  in  many  other  succeeding  cases, 
the  lords  decreed  payment  of  freight  to  the  neutral  ship 
owner.  It  is  fit  to  be  remembered  on  this  occasion,  that  the 
conduct  of  France  evinced  how  little  dependence  can  be 
placed  upon  explanations  of  measures  adopted  during  the 
pressure  of  war  ;  for,  hardly  was  the  ratification  of  the  peace 
assigned,  when  she  returned  to  her  ancient  system  of  colonial 
monopoly/' 

We  answer  to  all  this,  that,  to  refer  the  decision  of  the 
lords,  in  the  Vervagting,  and  other  succeeding  cases,  to  the 
reason  here  assigned,  is  to  accuse  that  high  tribunal  of  act 
ing  upon  a  confidence  which  has  no  example,  in  a  singularly 
incredible  declaration  (if,  indeed,  such  a  declaration  was 
ever  made),  after  the  utter  falsehood  of  it  had  been,  as  this 
learned  opinion  does  itself  inform  us,  unequivocally  and  no 
toriously  ascertained. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Vervagiing  was  decided  by  the 
lords  in  1785  and  1786,  at  least  two  years  after  France  had, 
as  we  are  told,  "  returned  to  her  ancient  system  of  colonial 
monopoly,"  and  when  of  course  the  supposed  assertion,  of  an 
intended  permanent  abandonment  of  that  system,  could  not 
be  permitted  to  produce  any  legal  consequence. 

We  answer  further,  that  if  this  alleged  declaration  was 
in  fact  made  (and  we  must  be  allowed  to  say,  that  we  have 
found  no  trace  of  it  out  of  the  opinion  above  recited),  it 
never  was  put  into  such  a  formal  and  authentic  shape  as  to 
be  the  fair  subject  of  judicial  notice. 

It  is  not  contained  in  the  French  amis  of  that  day, 
where  only  it  would  be  proper  to  look  for  it,  and  we  are  not 
referred  to  any  other  document  proceeding  from  the  govern 
ment  of  France,  in  which  it  is  said  to  appear.  There  does 
not,  in  a  word,  seem  to  have  been  any  thing  which  an  en 
lightened  tribunal  could  be  supposed  capable  of  considering 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  183 

as  a  pledge  on  the  part  of  France,  that  she  had  resolved 
upon  or  even  meditated  the  extravagant  change  in  her  colo 
nial  system  which  she  is  said,  in  this  opinion,  to  have  been 
understood  to  announce  to  the  world.  But  even  if  the  dec 
laration  in  question  was  actually  made,  and  that  too  with 
all  possible  solemnity,  still  it  would  be  difficult  to  persuade 
any  thinking  man  that  the  sincerity  of  such  a  declaration 
was  in  any  degree  confided  in,  or  that  any  person  in  any 
country  could  regard  it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  mere  ar 
tifice,  that  could  give  no  right  which  would  not  equally  well 
exist  without  it.  Upon  the  whole,  it  is  manifestly  impracti 
cable  to  rest  the  decisions  of  the  lords  of  appeal,  in  and  af 
ter  the  American  war,  upon  any  dependence  placed  in  this 
declaration,  of  which  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  ever  was 
made,  which  it  is  certain  was  not  authentically  or  formally 
made ;  which,  however  made,  was  not,  and  could  not  be  be 
lieved  at  any  time,  far  less  in  1785  and  1786,  when  its  false 
hood  had  been  unquestionably  proved  by  the  public  and  un 
disguised  conduct  of  its  supposed  authors,  in  direct  opposi 
tion  to  it.  That  Sir  James  Harriot,  who  sat  in  the  high 
court  of  admiralty  of  Great  Britain  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  late  war,  did  not  consider  these  doctrines  as  standing 
upon  this  ground  is  evident ;  for,  notwithstanding  that  in 
the  year  1756  he  was  the  most  zealous  and  perhaps  able  ad 
vocate  for  the  condemnation  of  the  Dutch  ships  engaged  in 
the  colony  trade  of  France,  yet,  upon  the  breaking  out  of 
the  late  war,  he  relied  upon  the  decisions  in  the  American 
war  as  authoritatively  settling  the  legality  of  that  trade,  and 
decreed  accordingly. 

If,  as  a  more  plausible  ans\ver  to  these  decisions,  consid 
ered  in  the  light  of  authorities,  than  that  which  we  have 
just  examined,  it  should  be  said  that  they  ought  rather  to 
be  viewed  as  reluctant  sacrifices  to  policy,  or  even  to  neces 
sity,  under  circumstances  of  particular  difficulty  and  peril, 
than  as  an  expression  of  the  deliberate  opinion  of  the  lords 


184  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

of  appeal,  or  of  the  government  of  Great  Britain ;  on  the 
matter  of  right,  it  might  perhaps  be  sufficient  to  reply,  that 
if  the  armed  neutrality  coupled  with  the  situation  of  Great 
Britain  as  a  party  to  the  war  did  in  any  degree  compel  these 
decisions,  we  might  also  expect  to  find  at  the  same  era  some 
relaxation  on  the  part  of  that  country  relative  to  the  doc 
trine  of  contraband,  upon  which  the  convention  of  the  armed 
neutrality  contained  the  most  direct  stipulations  which  the 
northern  powers  were  particularly  interested  to  enforce.  Yet 
such  was  not  the  fact.  But  in  addition  to  this,  and  other 
considerations  of  a  similar  description,  it  is  natural  to  inquire 
why  it  happened  that,  if  the  lords  of  appeal  were  satisfied 
that  Great  Britain  possessed  the  right  in  question,  they  re 
corded  and  gave  to  the  world  a  series  of  decisions  against  it, 
founded  not  upon  British  orders  of  council,  gratuitously  re 
laxing  what  was  still  asserted  to  be  the  strict  right  (as  in  the 
late  war),  but  upon  general  principles  of  public  law.  How 
ever  prudence  might  have  required  (although  there  is  no 
reason  to  believe  it  did  require)  an  abstinence  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain,  from  the  extreme  exercise  of  the  right  she 
had  been  supposed  to  claim,  still  it  could  not  be  necessary 
to  give  to  the  mere  forbearance  of  a  claim,  the  stamp  and 
character  of  a  formal  admission  that  the  claim  itself  was  il 
legal  and  unjust.  In  the  late  war,  as  often  as  the  British 
government  wished  to  concede  and  relax,  from  whatever  mo 
tive,  on  the  subject  of  the  colony  trade  of  her  opponents,  an 
order  of  council  was  resorted  to,  setting  forth  the  nature  of 
the  concession  or  relaxation  upon  which  the  courts  of  prize 
were  afterwards  to  found  their  sentences ;  and,  undoubtedly, 
sentences  so  passed,  cannot,  in  any  fair  reasoning,  be  consid 
ered  as  deciding  more  than  that  the  order  of  council  is  oblig 
atory  on  the  courts,  whose  sentences  they  are.  But  the  de 
crees  of  the  lords  of  appeal,  in  and  after  the  American  war, 
are  not  of  this  description ;  since  there  existed  no  order  of 
council  on  the  subject  of  them ;  and  of  course  they  are,  and 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  185 

ought  to  be,  of  the  highest  weight  and  authority  against 
Great  Britain,  on  the  questions  involved  in  and  adjudged  by 
them. 

This  solemn  reunciation  of  the  principle  in  question,  in 
the  face  of  the  whole  world,  by  her  highest  tribunal  in  mat 
ters  of  prize,  reiterated  in  a  succession  of  decrees,  down  to 
the  year  1*786,  and  afterwards,  is  powerfully  confirmed  by 
the  acquiescence  of  Great  Britain,  during  the  first  most  im 
portant  and  active  period  of  the  late  war,  in  the  free  and 
unlimited  prosecution  by  neutrals  of  the  whole  colony  trade 
of  France ;  she  did,  indeed,  at  last  prohibit  that  trade  by 
an  instruction  unprecedented  in  the  annals  of  maritime  dep 
redation  ;  but  the  revival  of  her  discarded  rule  was  charac 
terized  by  such  circumstances  of  iniquity  and  violence,  as 
rather  to  heighten,  by  the  effect  of  contrast,  the  veneration 
of  mankind  for  the  past  justice  of  her  tribunals. 

The  world  has  not  forgotten  the  instruction  to  which  we 
allude,  or  the  enormities  by  which  its  true  character  was  de 
veloped.  Produced  in  mystery,  at  a  moment  when  universal 
confidence  in  the  integrity  of  her  government  had  brought 
upon  the  ocean  a  prey  of  vast  value  and  importance  ;  sent 
abroad  to  the  different  naval  stations,  with  such  studied  se 
crecy  that  it  would  almost  seem  to  have  been  intended  to 
make  an  experiment  how  far  law  and  honor  could  be  outraged 
by  a  nation  proverbial  for  respecting  both  ;  the  heralds,  by 
whom  it  was  first  announced,  were  the  commanders  of  her 
commissioned  cruisers,  who  at  the  same  instant  carried  it 
into  effect  with  every  circumstance  of  aggravation,  if  of  such 
an  act  there  can  be  an  aggravation.  Upon  such  conduct 
there  was  but  one  sentiment.  It  was  condemned  by  reason 
and  justice.  It  was  condemned  by  that  law  which  flows 
from  and  is  founded  upon  them  ;  it  was  condemned,  and  will 
for  ever  continue  to  be  condemned,  by  the  universal  voice  of 
the  civilized  world.  Great  Britain  has  made  amends,  with 
the  good  faith  which  belongs  to  her  councils,  for  that  act  of 


186  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

injustice  and  oppression  ;  and  your  memorialists  have  a  strong 
confidence  that  the  late  departure  from  the  usual  course  of 
her  policy  will  be  followed  by  a  like  disposition  to  atonement 
and  reparation.  The  relations  which  subsist  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  rest  upon  the  basis  of  recipro 
cal  interests,  and  your  memorialists  see  in  those  interests,  as 
well  as  in  the  justice  of  the  British  government  and  the  firm 
ness  of  our  own,  the  best  reasons  to  expect  a  satisfactory 
answer  to  their  complaints,  and  a  speedy  abandonment  of 
that  system  by  which  they  have  been  lately  harassed  and 
alarmed. 

Your  memorialists  will  not  trespass  upon  your  time  with 
a  recital  of  the  various  acts  by  which  our  coasts,  and  even 
our  ports  and  harbors,  have  been  converted  into  scenes  of 
violence  and  depradation ;  by  which  the  security  of  our  trade 
and  property  has  been  impaired  ;  the  rights  of  our  territory 
invaded  ;  the  honor  of  our  country  humiliated  and  insulted  ; 
and  our  gallant  countrymen  oppressed  and  persecuted.  They 
feel  it  to  be  unnecessary  to  ask  that  the  force  of  the  nation 
should  be  employed  in  repelling  and  chastizing  the  law 
less  freebooters  who  have  dared  to  spread  their  ravages  even 
beyond  the  seas  which  form  the  principal  theatre  of  their 
piractical  exertions,  and  to  infest  our  shores  with  their  irre 
gular  and  ferocious  hostility. 

These  are  outrages  which  have  pressed  themselves  in  a 
peculiar  manner  upon  the  notice  of  our  government,  and 
cannot  have  failed  to  excite  its  indignation,  and  a  correspond 
ent  disposition  to  prevent  and  redress  them. 

Such  is  the  view  which  your  memorialists  have  taken,  in 
this  anxious  crisis  of  our  public  affairs,  of  subjects  which  ap 
pear  to  them,  in  an  alarming  degree,  to  affect  their  country 
and  its  commerce,  and  to  involve  high  questions  of  national 
honor  and  interest,  of  public  law  and  individual  rights,  which 
imperiously  demand  discussion  and  adjustment.  They  do 
not  presume  to  point  out  the  measures  which  these  great 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  187 

subjects  may  be  supposed  to  call  for.  The  means  of  redress 
for  the  past  and  security  for  the  future  are  respectfully,  con 
fidently  submitted  to  your  wisdom ;  but  your  memorialists 
cannot  forbear  to  indulge  a  hope,  which  they  would  aban 
don  with  deep  reluctance,  that  they  may  yet  be  found  in 
amicable  explanations  with  those  who  have  ventured  to  in 
flict  wrongs  upon  us,  and  to  advance  unjust  pretensions  to 
our  prejudice. 

Baltimore,  Jan.  21st,  1806. 


188  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 


FOREIGN  CORRESPONDENCE. 


FROM   MR.    PINKNEY   TO   MR.    MADISON. 
[PRIVATE.]  "  LONDON,   October,  10th  1807. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — Mr.  Monroe  will  doubtless  sufficiently  ex 
plain  the  subject  of  this  letter  ;  but  it  seems,  notwithstand 
ing,  to  be  proper  that  I  should  trouble  you  with  a  very  brief 
explanation  of  it  myself. 

"  This  government  having  determined  to  send  a  special 
envoy  to  the  United  States  upon  the  subject  of  Mr.  Monroe's 
late  instructions,  and  it  being  probable  (although  not  avowed) 
that  this  envoy  would  have  ulterior  powers  to  treat  upon  all 
the  topics  which  affect  the  relations  of  the  two  countries, 
Mr.  Monroe  expressed  a  wish  to  return  without  delay  to  the 
United  States,  and  to  leave  with  me  the  affairs  of  our  coun 
try  in  quality  of  Minister  Extraordinary  and  Plenipotentiary. 
So  far  as  respected  the  business  of  the  ordinary  legation, 
there  was  undoubtedly,  a  difficulty  of  form,  if  not  of  sub 
stance,  in  the  way  of  its  coming  into  my  hands  in  any  other 
than  the  inadmissible  character  of  a  mere  Charge  d' Affaires. 
My  credentials  as  Mr.  Monroe's  successor,  expired  with  the 
session  of  the  Senate  next  following  their  date,  and  had  not 
been  renewed  ;  and  my  commission  as  Minister  Extraordinary 
gave  only  limited  powers  for  specified  objects.  It  appeared 
to  be  my  duty,  however,  in  case  it  should  not  be  unaccepta 
ble  to  the  British  government  to  communicate  with  me  in 
the  event  of  Mr.  Monroe's  departure,  as  if  I  were  regularly 
accredited  as  the  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United 
States,  to  consent  on  my  part  to  such  an  arrangement,  as 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  189 

being  more  eligible  in  the  present  conjuncture  than  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  Charge  d' Affaires.  Mr.  Monroe  accordingly 
wrote,  with  nay  approbation,  a  note  to  Mr.  Canning  to  that 
effect,  to  which  some  personal  explanations  were  added,  and 
received  a  reply,  of  which  a  copy  is  inclosed,  adopting  the 
arrangement  proposed. 

"  You  will  perceive  that,  in  lending  myself  to  this  step, 
I  have  ventured  to  infer  the  approbation  of  the  President 
from  what  certainly  does  not  express  it.  It  would  have 
been  much  more  agreeable  to  me  that  a  Charge  d' Affaires 
should  be  left,  and  that  I  should  remain  in  my  character  of 
Commissioner  Extraordinary  until  the  government  of  the 
United  States  should  have  an  opportunity  of  taking  its  own 
course.  In  that  mode  I  should  have  been  relieved  from  all 
embarrassment  ;  but  thinking  that  the  public  interest  re 
quired  the  course  actually  adopted,  and  that  it  was,  moreover, 
that  which  was  likely  to  fulfil  the  expectations  of  the  Presi 
dent,  I  did  not  consider  myself  at  liberty  to  consult  my  own 
inclinations. 

"  The  concluding  expressions  of  Mr.  Canning's  note  af 
ford  me  an  opportunity  of  saying  that,  in  awaiting  here  the 
orders  of  the  President,  I  am  ready  to  return  or  to  remain, 
as  he  shall  think  the  interest  of  our  country  requires.  I  beg 
you  to  be  assured  that  as  I  accepted  the  trust  which  called 
me  abroad  with  no  selfish  motive  (although  I  felt  how  much 
I  was  honored  by  it),  I  should  regret  that  any  indulgent 
feeling  towards  me  should  in  any  degree  restrain  the  Presi 
dent  from  promoting,  in  the  way  he  thinks  best,  that  which 
I  know  is  the  constant  object  of  his  care — the  general  good. 
Neither  the  unfeigned  veneration  in  which  I  hold  his  charac 
ter,  nor  the  grateful  recollection  which  I  have  not  for  a  mo 
ment  ceased  to  cherish  of  the  manner  in  which  he  has  been 
so  good  as  to  distinguish  me,  will  suffer  any  abatement, 
although  he  should  think  fit  to  place  some  other  than  myself 
in  the  station  which  he  once  destined  for  me.,  I  am  quite 


190  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

sure  that  whatever  shall  be  done,  the  manner  of  it  will  be 
liberal  and  kind  ;  and  trusting,  as  I  do  most  confidently, 
that  I  shall  carry  out  of  the  public  service,  leave  it  whfcn  I 
may,  the  pure  name  with  which  I  entered  it,  and  the  un 
abated  good  opinion  of  the  government  I  have  been  proud  to 
serve — the  rest  is  of  little  importance." 

In  a  letter,  dated  the  21st  December,  1807,  he  says  : 
"  I  ought  not,  perhaps,  to  have  been  quite  so  scrupulous 
of  writing  to  you  on  public  affairs  during  the  existence  of  the 
joint  mission ;  but  you  will  do  me  the  justice  to  believe  that 
the  scruple  was  sincerely  felt,  and  yielded  to  frequently  with 
great  reluctance.  You  will  now  have  reason,  perhaps,  to 
complain  of  me  for  writing  rather  too  much  than  too  little. 
I  shall,  however,  continue  in  general  to  mark  my  letters 
"private/3  by  which  their  freedom  and  frequency  will  be 
rendered  innocent  at  least,  if  they  shall  not  be  useful. 

"  You  will  find  that  I  have  been  careful  to  send  you  by 
every  opportunity,  newspapers,  pamphlets,  &c.,  since  Mr. 
Monroe's  departure  •  as  indeed  I  sometimes  ventured  to  do 
before.  May  I  beg  that  those  from  the  United  States  may 
be  sent  with  more  regularity  ?  I  ought  to  remark,  that  a 
pamphlet,  favorable  to  British  pretensions,  and  decrying  our 
own,  is  no  sooner  published  in  America  than  it  finds  its  way 
across  the  Atlantic,  gets  into  general  circulation  here,  and  is 
quoted,  praised,  and  sometimes  republished  ;  whereas  those 
of  an  opposite  description  either  do  not  arrive  at  all,  or  come 
too  late.  Some  pamphlets,  of  a  most  pernicious  kind,  having 
a  British  character  strongly  stamped  upon  them,  have  lately 
been  imported  from  the  United  States^  and  advertised  for 
republication  by  English  booksellers.  I  should  have  been 
glad  to  see  the  antidote  accompanying  the  poison.  I  am  a 
sincere  friend  to  peace  with  all  the  world,  while  it  can  be 
preserved  with  honor  :  but  the  strange  productions  to  which 
I  allude  not  only  dishonor  or  betray  the  cause  of  our  country, 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  191 

but  tend,  if  read  in  Great  Britain,  to  produce  a  temper  un 
friendly  to  accommodation ;  and  thus,  while  they  inveigh 
against  war,  contribute  to  produce  it?  The  effect  of  these 
works  is  greatly  assisted  by  the  wonderful  ignorance  which 
has  prevailed,  and  still  prevails,  among  all  ranks  of  people 
in  Great  Britain,  relative  to  the  reciprocal  conduct  of  France 
and  the  United  States  towards  each  other.  The  President's 
message  has,  for  that  reason  only,  been  almost  universally 
misapprehended.  Even  our  best  friends  have  mistaken  and 
complained  of  it.  In  the  course  of  my  private  intercourse 
(as  well  with  the  opposition  as  with  the  friends  of  ministers) 
I  have  done  all  that  was  consistent  with  discretion,  to  give 
more  correct  notions  on  the  subject ;  but  the  press  only  can 
remove  completely  the  prevailing  error,  and  to  that  expedient 
it  would  be  improper  that  I  should  have  recourse.  Some  of 
the  most  distinguished  men  in  England,  however,  have  been 
referred  to  General  Armstrong's  letter  to  the  French  Minis 
ter  of  Marine,  and  the  answer  of  that  Minister,  as  published 
in  the  American  newspapers  during  the  last  winter,  and  to 
our  convention  with  France,  and  may,  perhaps,  do  what  I 
cannot.  Their  own  newspapers  prove  in  part  the  practice 
(even  now)  under  the  French  decree  of  November,  1806  ; 
and  it  is  well  known  to  many  persons  here  (notwithstanding 
the  general  ignorance),  that  France  has  never  acted,  and 
does  not  at  this  time  act,  upon  the  parts  of  the  decree 
which  might  seem  intended  for  external  operation,  as  mari 
time  rules. 

"  There  are  rumors  of  a  schism  in  the  cabinet  (relative 
to  the  Catholics)  ;  but  I  am  told  by  a  member  of  the  late 
administration  that  it  will  come  to  nothing." 


192  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 


MR.  PINKNEY   TO   MR.    MADISON. 
(PRIVATE.)  "LONDON,  January  ^th,  1808. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — I  inclose  a  duplicate  of  my  public  letter  of 
the  29th,  and  my  private  letter  of  the  31st;  of  last  month, 
to  which  I  am  now  able  to  add  a  copy  of  the  French  decree 
of  the  23d  (not,  as  I  had  supposed,  the  25th)  of  Novem 
ber.  This  was  sent  to  me  by  a  Mr.  Mitchell,  who  was  pro 
ceeding  to  the  United  States  (as  he  writes  me)  in  an  Amer 
ican  vessel  (the  Ocean),  with  dispatches  for  you,  from  Gen 
eral  Armstrong,  when  the  vessel  was  captured  by  the  Narcis 
sus  frigate,  and  sent  into  Plymouth,  upon  the  ground  that 
she  took  in  a  part  of  her  cargo  in  France  (salt  for  ballast) 
after  the  day  limited  in  the  last  British  orders  in  council.  I 
have  thought  it  proper  to  interest  myself  informally  in  the 
case  of  this  vessel,  and  I  have  assurance  that  it  shall  receive 
the  promptest  attention.  I  have  advised  Mr.  Mitchell  to 
wait  a  few  days  before  he  determines  upon  taking  his  passage 
in  another  vessel  for  America,  by  which  he  would  be  likely 
to  lose  time. 

"  I  sent  you  some  days  ago  a  newspaper  containing  the 
French  retaliating  decree,  dated  at  Milan,  the  25th  of  De 
cember.  Those  which  are  now  forwarded  contain  the  same 
decree ;  and  you  will  find  by  the  papers  of  this  morning  that 
it  has  been  followed  up  by  another.  This  country  has  ventured 
upon  an  extraordinary  struggle  with  France,  by  which  she 
has  every  thing  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain.  The  gross  im 
policy  of  the  late  orders  of  council  (to  say  nothing  of  their 
insulting  tone,  and  their  injustice  to  neutral  states),  begins 
to  develope  itself,  and  will  soon  be  manifest  to  all.  I  am 
greatly  deceived  if  it  will  not  in  a  few  weeks  be  matter  of 
surprise  among  all  descriptions  of  people  here,  that  a  manu 
facturing  and  commercial  nation  like  Great  Britain,  could 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  193 

have  expected  any  thing  but  disaster  and  ruin  from  such  a 
measure. 

"  Hopes  are  entertained  in  England,  that  our  non-im 
portation  act  will  have  been  repealed  upon  the  arrival  of 
intelligence  of  an  intended  extraordinary  mission  from  this 
country  !  That  law  passed  upon  unquestionable  grounds  of 
policy  and  justice;  and,  although  it  has  been  heretofore 
properly  suspended,  I  do  not  see  how  our  honor  could  fail  to 
become  a  mere  shadow,  if  it  should  now  be  abandoned,  even 
for  a  time.  The  mission  of  Mr.  Eose  would  not  seem  to 
justify  even  the  suspension  of  it,  until  the  nature  and  ex 
tent  of  his  powers  were  known ;  and  after  they  were  known, 
it  could  justify  nothing.  He  has  no  power  to  arrange  on  the 
topic  of  impressment,  the  great  foundation  of  the  non-im 
portation  act ;  and  his  government  has  not  only  reasserted 
its  obnoxious  pretension  on  that  subject  in  a  public  procla 
mation,  but  has  even  gone  the  length  of  declaring  that  it 
cannot  consent  to  impair  it.  The  unredressed  outrages  of 
Love,  Whitby,  &c.}  afford  no  inducement  to  repeal  a  law 
deliberately  passed,  with  the  clear  approbation  of  the  Amer 
ican  people,  when  all  the  motives  to  its  passage  have  received 
augmented  force.  But  the  late  orders  of  council  would 
make  the  repeal,  or  even  the  suspension,  of  the  non-impor 
tation  act,  particularly  unfortunate.  The  time  when  they 
were  issued — the  arrogant  claim  of  maritime  dominion,  which 
they  suppose  and  execute — and  the  contempt  which  they 
manifest,  in  the  face  of  the  world,  for  the  rights  and  the 
power  of  our  country,  make  them  altogether  the  most  offen 
sive  act  that  can  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  any  government. 
The  least  appearance  of  a  disposition  to  submit  to  such  an 
attempt  will  encourage  to  further  aggressions,  until  our  na 
tional  spirit  will  be  lost  in  an  habitual  sense  of  humiliation, 
our  character  known  only  to  be  despised,  and  our  rights  con 
sidered,  like  those  of  the  petty  states  of  Europe,  the  sport 
and  the  prey  of  the  strongest.  There  is  an  opinion  here, 
13 


194  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

that  we  are  likely  to  become  a  divided  people,  when  a  rup 
ture  with  Great  Britain  is  in  question ;  but  this  opinion  is 
founded  upon  such  American  publications  as  those  in  a  Bos 
ton  paper,  signed  "  Pacificus,"  and  upon  some  pamphlets 
and  private  letters  of  a  similar  character,  and  will,  undoubt 
edly,  be  gloriously  falsified,  if  there  should  be  occasion, 
by  the  patriotism  of  our  people  in  every  quarter  of  the 
Union." 


MR.    PINKNEY    TO   MB.    MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.")  "LONDON,  April  25th,  1808. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — Mr.  Rose  has  sent  me  your  private  letter 
of  the  21st  of  March ;  for  which  I  am  greatly  indebted  to 
you.  I  know  and  sincerely  regret,  the  state  of  your  health  ; 
and  therefore  beg  you  not  to  make  any  effort  (beyond  what 
may  be  absolutely  necessary  for  the  public  service)  to  write 
to  me.  I  will  take  for  granted  your  good  will ;  and,  if  you 
will  suffer  me  to  do  so,  will  presume  upon  your  esteem.  Of 
course,  I  shall  not  be  ready  to  think  myself  neglected  if  I 
hear  from  you  but  seldom ;  and  shall  not  relax  in  my  com 
munications  because  indisposition,  a  press  of  business,  or 
some  other  reason,  prevents  you  from  giving  much  attention 
to  me  or  my  letters.  I  will  only  stipulate  for  an  occasional 
acknowledgment  of  them,  so  that  I  may  know  what  have 
been  received  and  what  have  been  miscarried.  I  need  not 
say  that  as  much  more  as  may  be  consistent  with  your  con 
venience,  will  be  in  the  highest  degree  acceptable  to  me.  My 
commissions  and  credentials,  have  not  yet  come  to  hand. 
They  are  perhaps  in  the  Packet,  or  in  the  Osage,  or  in  both. 

"  I  feel  very  sensibly  the  delicacy  and  kindness  of  the 
assurances  which  you  are  so  good  as  to  give  me;  that  the  pur 
pose  of  nominating  me  to  the  permanent  Legation  here  was 
never  for  a  moment  suspended  in  the  mind  of  the  President. 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  195 

I  am  the  more  gratified  by  this  evidence  of  the  continuing 
confidence  of  the  President,  because  I  have  a  firm  persua 
sion  that  he  will  never  have  cause  to  repent  it.  I  beg  you 
to  say  for  me,  to  him,  that  I  am  truly  grateful  for  this  dis 
tinction. 

"I  inclose  another  copy  of  the  instruction  to  British 
cruisers,  mentioned  and  inclosed  in  my  last.  Having  been 
confined  by  indisposition  for  some  days,  I  cannot  yet  vouch 
that  it  has  actually  been  issued  ;  but  all  information  concurs 
to  make  it  sufficiently  certain.  There  is  something  ex 
tremely  injudicious  in  this  measure,  to  say  no  worse  of  it.  I 
do  not  suppose  that  we  ought  to  consider  it  (or  rather  to  ap 
pear  to  consider  it)  as  offensive  to  us ;  but,  undoubtedly,  an 
attempt,  in  the  face  of  the  world,  thus  to  set  the  people 
against  the  government  and  its  laws,  is  an  ungracious  act, 
and  rests  upon  a  bad  principle.  The  effect  of  this  wise  con 
trivance  in  America,  can  only  be,  to  add  to  the  vigilance  of 
the  government  in  guarding  the  law,  and  to  render  more 
conspicuous  the  just  pride  and  the  public  spirit  of  our  citi 
zens,  by  an  open  disdain  of  all  foreign  allurements  to  break 
it.  Such  an  instruction  manifestly  reposes  upon  a  foul 
libel  on  our  patriotism,  and  is  such  a  sneer  upon  our  honor, 
national  arid  individual,  as  should  give  us  virtue,  if  we  had 
it  not  before,  to  resist  the  temptation  which  it  offers  to  the 
worst  of  our  passions. 

"  P.  S. — I  have  just  received  my  credentials  and  your 
letter  of  the  8th  of  March,  by  the  Packet,  and  have  sent 
the  customary  note  to  Mr.  Canning,  requesting  an  interview 
for  the  purpose  of  presenting  them. 

"  The  incident  you  mention  was  not  the  most  fortunate 
that  could  have  happened,  but  I  hope  it  will  produce  no  bad 
effect  here.  I  will  endeavor  to  set  it  to  rights  without  haz 
arding  any  thing.  The  freedom  with  which  I  hold  it  to  be 
my  indisputable  duty  to  write  to  you,  renders  the  delicate 
caution  which  the  President  uses  on  such  occasions,  peculiarly 


196  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

proper  in  my  case.  But  if  he  should  at  any  time  think  that 
the  interests  of  the  state  require  that  publicity  should  be 
given  to  any  of  my  dispatches,  I  do  not  (because  I  ought 
not  to)  ask  to  be  spared ;  although  certainly  the  publication 
of  some  of  them,  during  my  stay  in  this  country,  would 
cause  me  most  serious  embarrassment. 

"  My  course  will  continue  to  be,  to  write  with  candor, 
frequency  and  fidelity,  and  to  throw  myself  upon  the  kindness 
and  wisdom  of  those  to  whom  my  correspondence  belongs. 
I  shall  do  so  without  doubt  or  fear  of  any  kind." 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   ME.    MADISON. 

"LONDON,  April  2ft th,  1808, 

: — I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you,  that  I  have  this 
day  had  an  audience  of  the  King  and  presented  my  creden 
tials. 

"  My  reception  was  particularly  kind  and  gracious ;  and 
it  is  my  duty  to  say,  that  every  evidence,  which  such  an  oc 
casion  could  admit,  was  afforded,  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  King  to  continue  in  friendship  with  us." 


ME.  PINKNEY  TO  THE  PEESIDENT   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

"LONDON,  April  28tJi,  1808. 

"  SIE  : — I  will  trespass  on  you  for  a  few  moments  only ; 
for  I  have  very  little  to  say,  and  that  little  might  have  been 
said,  with  at  least  equal  propriety,  through  another. 

"  I  thank  you,  sir,  for  the  feeling  attention  which,  with 
your  accustomed  goodness,  you  have  uniformly  shown  to  the 
interests  of  my  character,  under  circumstances  which  give 
to  that  attention  even  more  than  its  usual  value.  I  thank 
you,  especially,  for  the  recent  proof  which  you  have  thought 


LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  197 

fit  to  afford  me  of  undiminished  confidence,  in  a  season  when 
that  confidence,  at  all  times  flattering,  does  me  peculiar 
honor. 

"  Your  conduct  towards  me  has  been  every  thing  that  is 
delicate  and  generous  and  kind,  and  I  should  blush  for  my 
self,  if  I  did  not  feel  that  it  had  made  an  impression  upon 
my  heart  which  neither  time  nor  accident  can  efface.  I  en 
treat  you  to  be  assured,  sir,  that  it  has  made  such  an  im 
pression  ;  and  that  the  veneration  in  which  I  have  always 
held  your  virtues  and  your  talents  will  hereafter  be  accom 
panied  and  enlivened  by  gratitude  and  attachment. 

"  Will  you  surfer  me  to  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity 
to  join  to  the  demonstrations  of  affectionate  regret,  which 
you  have  received  from  the  different  quarters  of  the  Union, 
the  feeble  expression  of  my  own,  that  your  country  is  about 
to  lose  the  benefit  of  your  services  in  a  station,  upon  which, 
although  in  itself  the  most  exalted  to  which  the  virtuous 
hopes  of  a  citizen  can  aspire,  your  patriotism  and  wisdom 
have  reflected  lustre.  You  will  indeed,  carry  with  you  from 
that  station  all  that  can  give  a  charm  to  retirement,  the  love 
and  veneration  of  your  fellow-citizens,  and  an  approving  con 
science  ;  but  it  is  natural  that  he  who  can  so  retire,  should 
be  given  up  with  reluctance  by  the  world  to  the  claims  of 
age  or  even  of  constitutional  principle." 


MB.    PINKNEY   TO   MR.    MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.")  "LONDON,  May  I0th,  1808. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — I  received  yesterday,  after  I  had  finished 
my  public  dispatch,  a  letter  from  Mr.  Otto,  who  went  lately 
to  Holland,  and  promised  while  there  to  give  me  such  intel 
ligence  of  passing  events  as  might  be  in  his  power.  I  inclose 
a  copy  of  that  letter.  It  leaves  little  room  to  doubt  that  an 
obnoxious  decree  has  been  recently  issued  at  Bayonne  by  the 


198  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

French  government,  reinforcing  its  former  anti-commercial 
edicts,  and  superadding  a  provision  of  increased  rigor.  The 
decree  itself  (of  which  we  had  an  ambiguous  and  discredit 
ed  rumor  some  days  ago),  has  not  yet  found  its  way  to 
England. 

"  I  have  hardly  any  thing  else  worth  saying  to  you.  A 
desire  to  be  friends  with  us  seems  now  to  be  almost  universal 
here,  and  it  may  I  think  be  safely  assumed  that  it  pervades 
the  Cabinet.  I  believe  that  the  King  is  so  disposed.  What 
will  be  the  practical  result  of  that  disposition,  with  reference 
to  particular  measures  and  pretensions  which  touch  most 
nearly  our  honor  and  prosperity,  is  far  more  doubtful.  The 
hostile  spirit  against  France  is  at  its  height.  Animosity  is 
exasperated  by  well-founded  alarm ;  and  whatever  promises 
annoyance  on  the  one  hand,  or  security  on  the  other,  may 
not  easily  be  yielded  to  the  wish,  however  strong,  to  concili 
ate  us.  The  nation  is  with  the  government  in  that  respect ; 
at  least  such  is  the  appearance. 

"  There  has  been  sufficient  time  for  sober  reflection,  to 
enable  the  most  intemperate  advocate  for  war  with  America 
to  discover  the  rashness  of  his  early  opinions.  The  firm  at 
titude  taken  with  such  provident  foresight  by  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States — the  combined  operation  of  our 
embargo,  of  the  other  \neasures  of  our  legislature  and  execu 
tive,  of  their  own  orders  in  council,  and  the  French  decrees 
—the  discussions  (through  the  Liverpool  papers  and  others) 
by  which  the  vital  importance  of  American  connection  and 
intercourse  (and  even  of  that  American  trade  which  their 
late  orders  would  injudiciously  crush)  has  been  demonstrated 
to  all — the  still  progressive  march  of  the  power  of  France, 
and  the  new  difficulties  and  perils  which,  with  a  persevering 
fertility,  it  produces  or  threatens — would  have  created,  if  it 
did  not  exist  before,  an  anxiety  to  avoid  a  rupture  with  us. 
But  if  we  continue  at  peace  with  France  (as,  if  it  be  possi 
ble  without  dishonor,  I  trust  we  shall),  they  will  recede  here 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  199 

on  certain  points  with  infinite  difficulty  and  reluctance,  if 
they  recede  at  all.  They  will  not  go  to  war  if  they  can  help 
it ;  but  it  is  to  be  doubted  whether  they  are  prepared  to  do 
what  may  be  indispensable  to  the  re-establishment  of  inter 
rupted  friendship.  They  will  be  content  to  leave  things  as 
they  are,  and  to  trust  to  the  influence  of  events ;  and  a  hope 
will  perhaps  be  indulged  that  we  cannot  persevere  in  the 
embargo — that,  weary  of  our  system  of  self-denial,  pressed  by 
French  aggression,  and  alarmed  by  the  wide-spread  domina 
tion  and  restless  ambition  of  France,  we  shall  at  length  be 
induced  to  acquiesce  in  the  principles  and  practices  of  Great 
Britain  (which  must  necessarily  produce  a  contest  with  her 
enemy),  or  at  once  to  make  common  cause  with  her  against 
that  enemy.  What  is  to  be  the  system  of  France,  with  re 
gard  to  us,  I  know  not ;  but  it  is  sufficiently  obvious  that  in 
the  angry  struggles  of  these  rival  powers,  our  rights  are  for 
gotten  by  both,  and  that  it  requires  all  the  tried  wisdom 
and  firmness  of  our  government,  and  all  the  virtue  of  our 
people,  to  conduct  us  in  safety  and  with  honor  through  the 
tempests  that  agitate  and  afflict  the  world. 

"  My  health  has  suffered  a.little  since  my  return  to  Eng 
land,  and  I  am  disposed  to  ascribe  it  to  a  continued  confine 
ment  to  London,  from  which  I  have  not  been  absent  a  single 
day  for  almost  two  years.  I  have  some  thoughts,  therefore 
(but  am  by  no  means  determined  upon  it),  of  going  to  Chel 
tenham,  for  a  short  time,  after  the  birthday.  I  shall  in  that 
case  leave  a  person  in  my  house  to  attend  to  all  ordinary 
business,  to  forward  to  me  letters,  &c. ;  and  shall  come  to 
town  myself  as  occasion  may  require.  My  son,  who  has 
hitherto  acted  as  my  secretary,  I  send  home  in  the  Osage  to 
take  his  station  in  a  counting-house." 


200  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 


MR.    PINKNEY    TO    MR.    MADISON. 

"LONDON,  June  5th,  1808. 

"  SIR  : — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of 
your  letter  of  the  4th  of  April,  by  Mr.  Bethune,  together 
with  the  printed,  and  other  copies  of  Papers  mentioned 
in  it. 

cc  I  am  to  have  an  interview  with  Mr.  Canning  in  a  few 
days  (which  he  will  agree  to  consider  extra-official),  in  the 
course  of  which  I  intend  to  press,  by  every  argument  in 
my  powTer,  the  propriety  of  their  abandoning  immediately 
their  orders  in  council,  and  of  proposing  by  a  minister  in 
America  (the  only  becoming  course,  as  you  very  properly 
suggest),  reparation  for  the  outrage  on  the  Chesapeake.  I 
shall,  for  obvious  reasons,  do  this  informally  as  my  own  act. 

"  Your  unanswerable  reply  to  Mr.  Erskine's  letter  of  the 
23d  of  February,  has  left  nothing  to  be  urged  against  the 
orders  in  council  upon  the  score  of  right,  and  there  may  be 
room  to  hope  that  the  effect^  which  that  reply  can  hardly 
have  failed  to  produce  upon  ministers,  as  well  by  its  tone 
as  by  its  reasoning,  will,  if  followed  up,  become,  under  ac 
tual  circumstances,  decisive. 

"  The  discussion,  which  Mr.  Kose's  preliminary  in  the  af 
fair  of  the  Chesapeake  has  undergone,  gives  encouragement 
to  an  expectation,  that  this  government  will  not  now  be 
backward  to  relinquish  it,  and  to  renew  their  overture  of  sat 
isfaction  in  a  way,  more  consistent  with  reason,  and  more 
likely  to  produce  a  just  and  honorable  result. 

"  You  may  be  assured  that  I  will  not  commit  our  gov 
ernment  by  any  thing  I  shall  do  or  say,  and  that  if  I  cannot 
make  things  better  than  they  are,  I  will  not  make  them 
worse.  My  view  of  the  course  which  our  honor  and  interests 
have  required,  and  still  require,  is,  as  you  know,  in  precise 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  201 

conformity  with  that  of  the  President ;  but,  if  it  were  oth 
erwise,  I  should  make  his  view,  and  not  my  own,  the  rule  of 
my  conduct." 


ME.    PINKNEY   TO   MR.    MADISON. 

"LONDON,  August  4th,  1808. 

"  SIR  : — The  St.  Michael  arrived  at  Falmouth,  on  Thurs 
day  the  14th  of  last  month,  after  a  passage  of  8  days  from 
LV Orient.  Captain  Kenyon  delivered  me  on  Wednesday,  the 
20th  (upon  my  arrival  from  Brighton,  where  I  had  been  for 
a  short  time,  on  account  of  my  health),  your  letters  of  the 
30th  of  April,  and  your  private  letter  of  the  1st  of  May, 
together  with  newspapers,  printed  copies  of  the  embargo 
act  and  its  supplements,  and  of  papers  laid  before  Congress 
at  their  last  session.  Mr.  Hall  brought  me  a  letter  from 
General  Armstrong  of  the  26th  of  June  (of  which  I  send 
an  extract),  and  Mr.  Upson  brought  me  a  private  letter 
from  him,  with  the  following  postscript  of  the  1st  of  July. 
4  An  order  has  been  received  from  Bayonne  to  condemn 
eight  other  of  our  ships,  &c/ 

"  On  Friday  the  22d  of  July  I  had  an  interview  with 
Mr.  Canning,  and  renewed  my  efforts  to  obtain  a  revocation 
of  the  British  orders  of  January  and  November,  1807,  and  of 
the  other  orders  dependent  upon  them.  I  have  already  in 
formed  you  in  my  private  letter  of  the  29th  of  June  that 
on  the  morning  of  its  date  I  had  a  long  conversation  with 
Mr.  Canning,  which  had  rendered  it  somewhat  probable  that 
the  object  mentioned  in  your  letter  of  the  30th  of  April  (of 
which  I  had  received  a  duplicate  by  the  packet)  would  be 
accomplished  if  I  should  authorize  the  expectation  which  that 
letter  suggests  ;  but  that  some  days  must  elapse  before  I 
could  speak  with  any  thing  like  certainty  on  the  subject : 
and  I  have  mentioned  in  another  private  letter  (of  the  10th 


202  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

of  July)  that  it  was  understood  between  Mr.  Canning  and 
myself  that  another  interview  should  take  place  soon  after 
the  prorogation  of  Parliament.  In  effect,  however,  Mr.  Can 
ning  was  not  prepared  to  see  me  again  until  the  22 d  of  July, 
after  I  had  been  recalled  to  London  by  the  arrival  of  the  St. 
Michael,  and  had,  in  consequence,  reminded  him  of  our  ar 
rangement  by  a  private  note. 

"  In  the  interview  of  the  29th  of  June  I  soon  found  it  neces 
sary  to  throw  out  an  intimation,  that  the  power,  vested  in 
the  President  by  Congress,  to  suspend  the  embargo  act  and 
its  supplements,  would  be  exercised  as  regarded  Great  Bri 
tain,  if  their  orders  were  repealed  as  regarded  the  United 
States. 

"  To  have  urged  the  revocation  upon  the  mere  ground 
of  strict  right,  or  of  general  policy,  and  there  to  have  left 
the  subject,  when  I  was  authorized  to  place  it  upon  grounds 
infinitely  stronger,  would  have  been,  as  it  appeared  to  me,  to 
stop  short  of  my  duty.  Your  letters  to  Mr.  Ersldne  (which 
Mr.  Canning  has  read  and  considered)  had  exhausted  the 
first  of  these  grounds,  and  endless  discussions  here,  in  every 
variety  of  form,  in  and  out  of  Parliament,  had  exhausted  the 
second.  There  was,  besides,  no  objection  of  any  force  to  my 
availing  myself  without  delay  of  the  powerful  inducements 
which  the  intimation  in  question  was  likely  to  furnish  to 
Great  Britain  to  abandon  her  late  system  •  and  it  seemed  to 
be  certain  that,  by  delaying  to  present  these  inducements  to 
Mr.  Canning's  consideration.,  I  should  not  only  lose  much 
time,  but  finally  give  to  my  conduct  a  disingenuous  air, 
which,  while  it  would  be  foreign  to  the  views  and  sentiments 
of  the  President,  could  hardly  fail  to  make  a  very  unfavor 
able  impression  upon  the  mind  of  Mr.  Canning  and  his  col 
leagues.  I  thought,  moreover,  that,  if  I  should  reserve  the 
suggestion  for  a  late  state  of  our  discussions,  it  would  be 
made  to  wear  the  appearance  of  a  concession  reluctantly  ex 
torted,  rather  than  of  what  it  was,  the  spontaneous  result  of 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  203 

the  characteristic  frankness  and  honorable  policy  of  our  gov 
ernment. 

"  The  intimation  once  made,  a  complete  development 
of  its  natural  consequences,  if  properly  acted  upon,  followed 
of  course  ;  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  latitude  afforded  by 
the  informal  nature  of  a  mere  conversation,  I  endeavored  to 
make  that  development  as  strong  an  appeal  as,  consistently 
with  truth  and  honor,  I  could  (and  there  was  no  necessity 
to  do  more)  to  the  justice  and  the  prudence  of  this  govern 
ment.  It  was  not  possible,  however,  that  Mr.  Canning  could 
require  to  be  assisted  by  my  explanations.  It  was  plain, 
upon  their  own  principles,  that  they  could  not  equitably 
persevere  in  their  orders  in  council  upon  the  foundation  of 
an  imputed  acquiescence  on  our  part  in  French  invasions  of 
our  neutral  rights,  when  it  was  become  (if  it  was  not  always) 
apparent,  that  this  imputation  was  completely  and  in  all 
respects  an  error — when  it  was  manifest  that  these  orders, 
by  letting  loose  upon  our  right  a  more  destructive  and  offen 
sive  persecution  than  it  was  in  the  power  of  France  to  main 
tain,  interposed  between  us  and  France,  furnished  answers 
to  our  remonstrances  against  her  decrees  and  pretexts  for 
those  decrees,  and  stood  in  the  way  of  that  very  resistance 
to  these  which  Great  Britain  affected  to  inculcate  as  a  duty 
at  the  moment  when  she  was  taking  the  most  effectual  steps 
to  embarrass  and  confound  it ;  and  when  it  was  also  manifest 
that  a  revocation  of  those  orders  would,  if  not  attended  or 
followed  by  a  revocation  of  the  decrees  of  France,  place  us 
at  issue  with  thafc  power,  and  result  in  a  precise  opposition 
by  the  United  States  to  such  parts  of  her  anti-commercial 
edicts  as  it  became  us  to  repel. 

"  In  a  prudential  view  any  explanations  seemed  still  less 
to  be  required.  Nothing  could  be  more  clear  than  that  if 
Great  Britain  revoked  her  orders,  and  entitled  herself  to  a 
suspension  of  the  embargo,  her  object  (if  it  were  any  thing 
short  of  the  establishment  and  practical  support  of  an  ex- 


204  LIFE   OF-WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

elusive  dominion  over  the  seas)  must,  in  some  mode  or  other, 
be  accomplished  ;  whether  France  followed  her  example  or 
not.  In  the  first  case  the  avowed  purpose  of  the  British 
orders  would  be  fulfilled,  and  commerce  would  resume  its  ac 
customed  prosperity  and  expansion.  In  the  last,  the  just 
resistance  of  the  United  States  (more  efficacious  than  that  of 
the  British  orders)  to  French  irregularities  and  aggressions, 
would  be  left  to  its  fair  operation  (of  which  it  was  impos 
sible  to  mistake  the  consequences),  and  in  the  mean  time 
the  commercial  intercourse  between  the  United  States  arid 
Great  Britain,  being  revived,  would  open  the  way  for  a 
return  to  good  understanding,  and  in  the  end  for  an  adjust 
ment  of  all  their  differences. 

"  These,  and  many  other  reflections  of  a  similiar  tendency 
(which  I  forbear  to  repeat),  could  not  have  escaped  the  pene 
tration  of  Mr.  Canning,  if  they  had  not  been  suggested  to 
him  in  considerable  detail.  But,  whatever  might  be  their 
influence  upon  his  mind,  he  certainly  did  not  pronounce  any 
opinion  •  and  what  he  said  consisted  principally  of  inquiries 
with  a  view  to  a  more  accurate  comprehension  of  my  purpose. 
He  asked  if  I  thought  of  taking  a  more  formal  course  than 
I  was  now  pursuing ;  but  immediately  remarked  that  he  pre 
sumed  I  did  not ;  for  that  the  course  I  had  adopted  was  un 
doubtedly  well  suited  to  the  occasion.  I  told  him  that  I 
was  so  entirely  persuaded  that  the  freedom  of  conversation 
was  so  much  better  adapted  to  the  nature  of  our  subject  and 
so  much  more  likely  to  conduct  us  to  a  beneficial  result  than 
the  constraint  and  formality  of  written  communication, 
which  usually  grew  into  protracted  discussion  and  always 
produced  embarrassment  when  there  was  any  thing  of  deli 
cacy  in  the  topics,  that  I  had  not  intended  to  present  my  note. 

"  The  interview  (in  the  progress  of  which  some  other 
points  were  incidentally  touched  ujjon,  as  mentioned  in  my 
private  letter  of  the  29th  of  June)  did  not  authorize  any  very 
confident  opinion  that  Mr.  Canning  approved  of  what  had 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  205 

now  for  the  first  time  been  suggested  to  him  ;  and  still  less 
could  it  warrant  any  anticipation  of  the  final  opinion  of  his 
government.  But  the  manner  in  which  my  communication 
was  received,  and  the  readiness  shown  by  Mr.  Canning  to 
proceed  in  the  mode  which  was  peculiarly  favorable  to  my 
object,  connected  with  the  reasonableness  of  the  object  itself, 
induced  me  to  think  it  rather  probable  that  the  issue  would 
be  satisfactory. 

"  The  interview  of  the  22d  of  July  was  far  from  producing 
any  thing  of  an  unpromising  complexion.  I  urged  again 
much  of  what  had  been  said  at  the  last  conference,  and  sug 
gested  such  further  considerations  as  had  since  occurred  to 
me  in  support  of  my  demand.  Mr.  Canning  was  still  much 
more  reserved  than  I  had  hoped  to  find  him  after  so  much 
time  had  been  taken  for  deliberation  ;  but  from  all  that 
passed  I  was  more  than  ever  inclined  to  believe  that  the 
orders  would  be  relinquished.  He  seemed  now  to  be  ex 
tremely  desirous  of  ascertaining  whether  I  was  authorized 
and  disposed,  with  a  view  to  a  final  arrangement,  to  present 
what  I  had  suggested,  as  to  the  suspension  of  the  embargo, 
in  a  more  precise  shape.  I  told  him,  after  some  conversation 
upon  this  point,  that,  although  I  would  prefer  that  course 
which  was  the  least  formal,  yet,  if  every  thing  should  be  first 
matured,  I  might  be  able  to  combine  with  a  written  demand, 
that  their  orders  would  be  repealed,  such  an  assurance  as  I 
had  already  mentioned,  that  the  embargo  would  be  suspend 
ed,  but  that  I  would  consider  of  this  with  reference  to  the 
manner  and  terms.  He  then  observed  that  I  would  perhaps 
allow  him  a  little  time  to  reflect  whether  he  would  put  me 
to  the  necessity  of  presenting  such  a  paper,  and,  upon  my 
assenting  to  this,  he  said  that  he  would  give  me  another  ap 
pointment  towards  the  end  of  the  following  week.  As  I  was 
on  the  point  of  leaving  him,  he  asked  me  if  I  would  endeavor 
to  prepare,  before  the  next  interview  such  a  note  as  we  had 
talked  of ;  but  he  had  scarcely  made  this  request  before  he 


206  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

added  ( but  you  will  doubtless  desire  first  to  know  what  are 
our  ideas  and  intentions  upon  the  whole  subject/ 

"  On  the  29th  of  July  I  met  Mr.  Canning  again  ;  and 
was  soon  apprised  that  our  discussions,  if  continued,  must 
^ake  a  new  form.  He  began  by  inquiring  if  I  had  received 
any  intelligence  of  a  late  affair  upon  the  Lakes  which  had 
caused  great  alarm  and  anxiety  among  the  British  traders, 
and  of  which  an  account  had  just  been  put  into  his  hands. 
He  then  read  very  rapidly,  from  a  letter  apparently  written 
in  Canada,  a  complaint  of  an  attack  upon  some  British  boats 
in  violation  of  the  3d  article  of  the  Treaty  of  1794,  and  ob 
served  that  this  was  the  more  to  be  regretted,  as  it  followed 
some  recent  misunderstanding  in  the  Bay  of  Passamaquoddy. 
I  told  him  that  I  had  no  intelligence,  official  or  private,  of 
these  transactions,  which  he  would  perceive  took  place  upon 
our  borders  at  a  great  distance  from  the  seat  of  government, 
and  that  of  course,  I  could  only  express  my  conviction  that 
the  government  of  the  United  States  would  disavow  whatever 
was  improper  in  the  conduct  of  its  agents,  and  would  in  other 
respects  act  as  good  faith  and  honor  required.  This  affair 
being  disposed  of,  Mr.  Canning  said  that  he  had  thought  long 
and  anxiously  upon  what  I  had  suggested  to  him  at  our  late 
conferences — that  the  subject  at  first  struck  him  as  much 
more  simple  and  free  from  difficulty  than  upon  careful  ex 
amination  it  was  found  to  be — that  in  the  actual  state  of  the 
world  it  behooved  both  him  and  me  to  move  in  this  affair  with 
every  possible  degree  of  circumspection  (an  intimation  which 
he  did  not  explain) — that  without  some  explicit  proposal  on 
my  part  in  writing  upon  which  the  British  government  could 
deliberate  and  act,  nothing  could  be  done  ;  and,  finally,  that 
he  must  leave,  me  to  consult  my  own  discretion  whether  I 
would  make  such  a  proposal.  I  answered  that,  with  such  a 
previous  understanding  between  us  as  I  had  counted  upon,  I 
should  feel  no  objection  to  take  occasion  to  say  in  an  official 
note  requiring  the  revocation  of  their  orders  in  council,  that, 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  207 

the  orders  being  rescinded  as  to  us,  it  was  the  intention  of 
the  President  to  suspend  the  embargo  as  to  Great  Britain  ; 
but  that  I  expected  to  be  told,  before  my  note  was  presented, 
wliat  would  be  the  reply  to  it,  and  what  its  consequences  in 
every  direction  ;  and  that  I  could  not  conjecture,  if  it  was 
really  meant  to  acquiesce  in  my  demand  (the  exact  nature 
of  it  being  in  point  of  fact  understood  by  this  government 
just  as  well  as  if  it  had  been  made  in  writing),  or  if  more 
time  than  had  already  been  afforded  was  required  for  deli 
beration,  why  it  was  necessary  that  I  should,  in  the  last  case 
take  the  step  in  question  at  all,  or,  in  the  first  case,  without 
being  frankly  apprised  of  the  effect  it  would  produce.  Mr. 
Canning  replied  that  my  wish  in  this  particular  could  not  be 
acceded  to  ;  that,  if  I  presented  a  note,  they  must  be  left  at 
perfect  liberty  to  decide  upon  what  it  proposed  ;  that  he 
could  not  give  me  an  intimation  of  the  probable  consequences 
of  it ;  and  in  a  word,  that  he  would  neither  invite  nor  dis 
courage  such  a  proceeding.  He  observed,  too,  that  there 
were  some  points  belonging  to  the  subject  which  it  was  neces 
sary  to  discuss  in  writing  ;  that  my  suggestion  implied  that 
the  embargo  was  produced  by  the  British  orders  in  council — • 
that  this  could  not  be  admitted — and  that  there  were  other 
questions  necessarily  incident  to  these  two  measures  with  the 
examination  of  which  it  was  proper  to  begin  upon  an  occasion 
like  the  present.  I  remarked  in  answer  that,  with  an  actual 
result  in  view,  and  with  a  wish  to  arrive  at  that  result  with 
out  delay,  nothing  could  be  worse  imagined  than  to  entangle 
ourselves  in  a  written  correspondence,  undefined  as  to  its 
scope  and  duration,  upon  topics  on  which  we  were  not  likely 
to  agree  ;  that  if  I  were  compelled  to  frame  my  note  with  a 
knowledge  that  it  was  only  to  provoke  argument,  instead  of 
leading  at  this  momentous  crisis  to  a  salutary  change  in  the 
state  of  the  world,  he  must  be  conscious  that  I  too  must 
argue,  and  that  I  could  not  justify  it  to  my  government  to 
abstain  from  a  complete  assertion  of  all  its  pretensions  and  a 


208  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

full  exposure  of  the  true  character  of  those  acts  of  which  it 
complained  as  illegal  and  unjust.  And  where  would  this 
end  ?  To  what  wholesome  consequence  could  it  lead  ? 

"  I  ought  to  mention  that  I  give  you  in  this  letter  the 
substance  only  of  the  conversations  which  it  states,  and  that 
there  was  nothing  in  any  degree  unfriendly  in  the  language 
or  manner  of  Mr.  Canning  at  either  of  our  conferences.  I 
need  not  say  that  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  adopt  the  same 
tone  and  manner." 


ME.    PINKNEY    TO   MR.    MADISON. 


Sept.  6th,  1808. 

"  SIR  :  —  I  have  an  opportunity  of  writing  by  Mr.  Bethune,, 
who  leaves  town  to-morrow  for  Falmouth,  to  embark  for  the 
United  States  in  the  British  packet  ;  and  I  cannot  omit  to 
take  advantage  of  it,  although  I  have  still  nothing  conclusive 
to  communicate. 

"  My  public  letter  of  the  4th  of  August  will  have  ap 
prised  you  of  the  footing  on  which  my  different  interviews 
with  Mr.  Canning  left  the  subject  of  the  British  orders  in 
council  ;  and  my  private  letter  of  the  2d  of  that  month  will 
have  made  you  acquainted  with  my  intention  to  present, 
in  an  official  note,  what  I  had  ineffectually  suggested  in 
conference. 

"To  such  a  course  there  could  not,  even  in  the  first  in 
stance,  have  been  any  other  objection  than  that  it  was  cal 
culated  to  lead  to  discussion  rather  than  to  adjustment  ;  but, 
whatever  might  be  its  tendency,  it  is  certain  that  I  could 
have  no  inducement  to  resort  to  it  until  it  was  indicated  by 
Mr.  Canning  as  indispensable,  nor  any  motive  to  decline  it 
afterwards. 

"  At  our  last  interview,  and  not  before,  it  was  unexpect 
edly  found  that  it  was  in  that  mode  only  that  I  could  obtain 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  209 

a  knowledge  of  the  light  in  which  this  government  thought 
fit  to  view  the  overture  I  had  been  directed  to  make  to  it  ; 
and  I  determined,  in  consequence,  to  lay  before  it  in  writing 
the  intentions  of  the  President,  with  the  same  frankness 
which  had  characterized  my  verbal  communications. 

"  I  have  now  the  honor  to  transmit  a  copy  of  the  note, 
which,  in  conformity  with  that  determination,  I  delivered  in 
person  to  Mr.  Canning,  on  the  26th  of  last  month,  a  few  days 
after  its  date.  To  this  note  no  answer  has  yet  been  returned: 
but  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  it  cannot  be  much  longer  with 
held. 

"  You  will  perceive  that  some  time  had  elapsed,  after  I 
had  sent  off  my  dispatches  by  the  St.  Michael  (the  8th  of 
August),  before  my  note  was  presented.  The  truth  is,  that 
I  had  employed  a  part  of  that  time  in  framing  a  note  of 
great  length,  which,  when  it  was  nearly  completed,  I  thought 
it  prudent  to  abandon,  in  favor  of  one  that  held  out  fewer 
invitations  to  unprofitable  discussions,  which,  although  I 
would  not  shun  them  if  pressed  upon  me,  I  did  not  suppose 
it  proper  that  I  should  seek. 

"  I  believed,  too,  that  a  little  delay  on  my  part  would  be 
far  from  being  disadvantageous.  There  would  still  be  sufficient 
time  for  obtaining  a  final  answer  to  my  proposal,  in  season  for 
the  meeting  of  Congress  ;  and,  as  the  temper  of  the  govern 
ment,  so  far  as  it  had  been  tried,  had  not  appeared  to  be  fa 
vorable  to  my  purpose,  I  believed  that  I  should  act  in  the 
spirit  of  my  instructions,  and  consult  the  honor  of  my  gov 
ernment,  by  avoiding,  under  such  circumstances,  the  appear 
ance  of  urgency  and  precipitation. 

"  Upon  the  terms,  or  general  plan  of  my  note  it  is  not, 
I  hope,  necessary  to  remark.  You  will  discover  that  it  was 
prepared  under  a  persuasion  that,  whatever  might  be  its  ef 
fect,  it  was  infinitely  better  to  make  it  as  conciliatory  as, 
without  a  sacrifice  of  principle  or  national  dignity,  was  pos 
sible. 

14 


210  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

"  The  topics  to  be  embraced  by  it,  were  such  as  did  not 
demand,  but  rather  forbade,  minute  exposition.  While  it 
was  difficult  to  urge  in  their  full  force  without  seeming  to 
aim  at  exciting  a  disposition  unfriendly  to  the  object  of  my 
instructions,  all  the  considerations  which  justified  the  United 
States  in  remonstrating  against  the  British  orders,  it  was  yet 
more  difficult,  without  a  degree  of  harshness  scarcely  suited 
to  the  occasion,  and  without  also  the  hazard  of  indiscretion, 
to  display  in  detail  the  signal  injustice  and  impolicy  of  per 
severing  in  them,  after  what  I  had  proposed.  This  could  be 
done,  and  had  been  done,  in  conversation  ;  but  it  did  not, 
upon  trial,  appear  to  be  equally  practicable  in  the  more  for 
mal  and  measured  proceeding  which  I  was  now  called  upon 
to  adopt. 

"  I  considered,  besides,  that  an  overture  so  advantageous 
to  Great  Britain,  which  the  United  States  were  not  bound  to 
make  to  any  obligations  of  equity,  although  it  was  wise  to 
make  it,  did  not  require,  with  any  view  to  the  character  of 
my  country,  or  even  to  the  success  of  the  overture  itself,  to 
be  again  recommended  by  an  anxious  repetition  of  arguments 
already  fully  understood. 

"  As  soon  as  my  note  was  prepared,  I  called  at  the  For 
eign  office  to  arrange  an  interview  with  Mr.  Canning,  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  me  to  accompany  the  delivery  of  it  with 
a  communication  which  I  deemed  important,  as  well  as  of 
affording  him  an  opportunity  of  making  and  receiving  such 
explanations  as  he  might  desire.  The  interview  took  place 
on  the  26th  of  August. 

"  It  had  occurred  to  me  that  it  would  be  proper  (  and 
could  not  be  injurious)  to  read  to  Mr.  Canning,  from  your 
letter  to  me  of  the  18th  of  July,  a  brief  summary  of  the  in 
structions  under  which  I  was  acting.  This  had  not  been  re 
quested  ;  but  it  could  not  be  unacceptable  ;  and  it  was,  be 
sides,  well  calculated  to  do  justice  to  the  liberal  sentiments 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   P1NKNEY.  211 

by  which  my  instructions  had  been  dictated,  as  well  as  to  give 
weight  to  my  efforts  in  the  execution  of  them. 

"  I  was  led  by  the  reading  of  these  passages  (without 
having  originally  intended  it),  into  a  more  extensive 
explanation  than  I  had  before  attempted,  of  the  influ 
ence  which  the  proposal  of  my  government  would  have,  in 
truth  as  well  as  in  the  judgment  of  the  world,  upon  the  sup 
posed  justice  of  their  new  system  as  it  affected  the  United 
States.  To  that  explanation,  with  the  particulars  of  which 
I  will  not,  and  indeed  for  want  of  time  cannot,  at  present, 
trouble  you,  I  added  a  concise  recapitulation  of  some  of  the 
practical  considerations  which  had  been  so  often  pressed  be 
fore  ;  and  there  I  left  the  subject. 

"  Mr.  Canning  paid  great  attention  to  what  I  said.  He 
spoke,  however,  of  the  attack  on  the  Chesapeake  and  of  the 
President's  proclamation,  and  asked  what  was  to  be  done 
with  them  ?  I  stated  that  these  two  subjects  were  wholly 
distinct  from  the  present,  but  that  it  was  not  to  be  doubted 
that  if  the  atonement  which  the  United  States  were  authorized 
to  expect,  for  that  admitted  outrage  upon  their  sovereignty, 
were  offered  in  a  suitable  manner  (which  I  ventured  to  sug 
gest  would  be  a  special  mission),  it  would  not  be  difficult  to 
bring  the  two  governments  to  a  proper  understanding  on  these 
points — that,  as  it  was  fit  that  the  British  overture  of  satis 
faction  should  be  renewed  in  America,  and  not  through  me, 
I  could  not  hope  to  be  the  immediate  agent  in  receiving  it ; 
but  that  I  should  be  happy  to  contribute  informally  every  as 
sistance  in  my  power  to  facilitate  an  adjustment,  so  much  to 
be  desired,  upon  such  terms  as  it  became  them  to  offer  and  us 
to  accept.  Mr.  Canning  observed,  i  that  there  was  a  diffi 
culty  in  setting  about  the  adjustment/  and  he  repeated  what 
he  said  in  our  conference  of  the  29th  of  June  (as  mentioned 
in  my  private  letter  on  that  date),  that  there  would  be  no 
objection  to  restoring  the  men  taken  from  the  Chesapeake  ; 
but  he  did  not  say  what  other  reparation  they  were  willing 


212  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

to  propose.  I  considered  myself  at  liberty  to  encourge  a  dis 
position,  which  I  thought  I  perceived  in  him,  to  move  in  that 
interesting  affair,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  promise  a  satisfac 
tory  conclusion  of  it,  and  I  acted  accordingly  ;  but  nothing 
passed  which  could  justify  me  in  undertaking  to  anticipate 
the  result. 

"  At  the  close  of  the  interview  I  told  Mr.  Canning  that 
although  I  would  not  be  understood  to  urge  an  answer  to  my 
note  sooner  than  was  consistent  with  his  convenience,  I  could 
not  help  asking  that  it  might  be  as  prompt  as  possible.  He 
assured  me  that  there  should  be  no  unnecessary  delay  ;  and  I 
took  my  leave. 

"As  I  have  no  sufficient  grounds,  upon  which  to  form  an 
opinion  as  to  the  final  course  of  the  British  government  OR 
this  occasion,  I  will  not  fatigue  you  with  mere  conjectures. 
I  have  seen  Mr.  Canning  but  once  (at  dinner  at  his  own 
house),  since  the  interview  of  the  26th  of  August ;  and  such 
an  occasion  was  not  suited  to  official  approaches  on  my  part. 
A  few  days,  however,  will  decide  what  is  now  perhaps  doubt 
ful.  In  the  mean  time  the  Hope  will  probably  have  arrived, 
on  her  return  from  France  ;  and  I  will  take  care  that  by  her, 
and  by  other  opportunities,  you  shall  receive  the  speediest 
information. 

"  I  beg  leave  to  refer  to  the  newspapers  herewith  sent  for 
an  account  of  the  important  events  which  have  lately  occur 
red  in  Europe." 


MB.     PINKNEY     TO    MR.     MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.)  LONDON,  Sept.  *lth,  1808. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — As  Mr.  Bethune  leaves  town  in  a  few  hours, 
I  have  only  time  to  write  a  short  private  letter  in  addition 
to  my  public  one  of  yesterday. 

"  Mr.  Atwater  delivered  your  private  letter  of  the  21st 
of  July,  and  a  duplicate  of  that  of  the  15th,  and  I  received 


"LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  213 

by  Mr.  Nicolson,  on  the  24th  of  last  month,  your  private 
letters  of  the  3d  and  15th  of  July. 

"  I  cannot  subdue  my  opinion  that  the  overture  on  the 
subject  of  the  orders  in  council  will  be  either  rejected  or 
evaded.  What  infatuation,  if  it  be  so  ! 

"  That  the  embargo  pinches  here  is  certain.  There  is 
undoubtedly  room  for  alarm  on  the  score  of  provisions  ;  and 
it  is  confessed  that  they  feel  severely  the  want  of  our  trade. 
The  effect,  however,  is  less  than  it  ought  to  have  been,  on 
account  of  the  numerous  evasions  of  the  embargo,  and  the 
belief  (encouraged  in  America)  that  we  had  not  virtue  to 
persist  in  it.  Should  it  be  continued  it  must  be  rigorously 
executed,  and  our  vessels  in  Europe  recalled. 

"  I  send  you  Marriott's  book,  entitled  "  Hints  to  both  Par 
ties."  Towards  the  end  you  will  find  a  pretty  open  avowal 
that  even  if  France  should  retract  her  decrees,  Great  Britain 
ought  to  hold  on  upon  the  substance  of  her  orders,  making 
them  only  more  palatable  to  us  in  some  of  their  subordinate 
provisions.  This  gentleman  is  a  West  India  merchant,  and 
a  member  of  Parliament ;  and  was  consulted  by  ministers 
when  the  orders  of  November  were  in  contemplation. 

"  It  is  still  believed  here  that  the  late  events  in  Spain 
and  Portugal,  connected  with  the  British  explanations  (al 
ready  forwarded  in  my  private  letter  of  the  17th  of  August, 
and  now  -again  transmitted)  relative  to  a  direct  trade  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  those  countries,  will  have  an 
irresistible  effect  on  our  embargo.  They  are  so  misled  in 
this  country  as  to  suppose  that  the  embargo  has  already 
produced  very  formidable  discontent  in  America,  and  I  am 
mistaken  if  the  government  has  not  been  inclined  to  cal 
culate  upon  that  discontent  in  various  ways,  and  at 
least  to  give  it  a  trial.  But,  at  any  rate,  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  trade  will,  it  is  imagined,  be  too  great  a  temp 
tation  to  be  withstood.  I  know  not  what  we  may  think  of 
this  temptation  in  America, — but  it  will  be  well  to  reflect 


214  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

that,  if  we  trade  under  the  British  orders  and  go  to  war 
with  France  (as  this  speculation  supposes)  while  the  British 
orders  continue,  we  not  only  retreat  from  the  honorable 
ground  we  have  taken,  and  admit  the  right  of  Great  Britain 
to  act  at  all  times  upon  her  new  system,  to  the  utter  ex 
tinction  of  our  commerce,  but  deliver  ourselves  up  to  her 
mercy  in  all  respects.  What  would  be  her  course  in  that 
respect  I  know  not ;  but  is  there  any  reason  to  believe  it 
would  be  generous  or  even  just  ?  We  should,  I  incline  to 
think,  be  in  danger  of  falling  into  a  dependence  upon  this 
country  fatal  to  our  character,  to  our  institutions,  to  our 
navigation,  to  our  strength — and  what  could  we  hope  to 
gain  ?  I  profess  I  am  not  able  to  imagine. 

"  Since  the  change  in  Spain  and  Portugal  this  nation  is 
not  exactly  what  it  was  ;  and  it  may  be  presumed  that  the 
government  partakes  of  the  universal  exaltation.  Their 
dreams  of  future  prosperity  are  bright  and  romantic.  A 
Chateau  en  Espayne  has  become  quite  common.  I  have 
heard  it  suggested  (as  a  course  of  reasoning  not  unusual 
here  among  merchants  and  others)  that  South  America, 
whether  dependent  or  independent,  must  be  thrown  com 
mercially  into  the  arms  of  Great  Britain, — that,  encouraged 
to  exertion  and  roused  to  activity  by  a  new  order  of  things,  she 
will  hereafter  rival  us  in  all  the  great  agricultural  produc 
tions  of  our  country — that,  under  a  system  friendly  to  the 
development  of  their  resources,  our  southern  neighbors 
will  even  surpass  us  as  cultivators — that  Great  Britain  will 
thus  become  wholly  independent  of  the  United  States  for  ar 
ticles  which  she  has  heretofore  been  obliged  to  take  from 
them,  and  in  a  great  degree  too,  for  the  consumption  of  her 
manufactures — that  in  other  views  our  importance  will  be 
greatly  diminished,  if  not  absolutely  annihilate^,  by  this 
new  competition — that  this  result,  almost  inevitable  in  any 
view,  is  more  especially  to  be  counted  upon  if  Great  Britain, 
compelled  by  the  policy  of  our  government,  or  following  the 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  215 

impulse  of  the  jealousy  which  is  imputed  to  her,  should 
foster  (by  her  capital  and  her  trade),  to  the  full  extent  of  her 
capacit}^,  the  prosperity  of  the  south,  in  contradistinction  to 
that  of  the  north — that  the  change  in  Spain  is  otherwise 
likely  to  enable  Great  Britain  to  hold  towards  the  United 
States  a  higher  tone  than  formerly — that  the  Spanish  depu 
ties  here  (I  doubt  this  fact),  and  those  who  are  in  the  new 
Spanish  interest  (this  I  believe  true),  begin  to  talk  already 
of  our  Louisiana  purchase  as  unfit  to  be  submitted  to — 
that  regenerated  Spain  will  certainly  question  the  validity  of 
the  cession  that  preceded  our  purchase,  and  reclaim  the  territo 
ry  alienated  by  it — that  this  and  other  causes  of  dissatisfaction 
(aided  by  the  sentiment  of  gratitude  and  the  considerations 
of  interest  which  bind  the  Spaniards  to  Great  Britain)  may 
be  easily  fomented  into  a  quarrel  with  the  United  States,  of 
which  the  consequences  (Great  Britain  being  a  party  also) 
may  be  most  destructive. 

"  These  rhapsodies  (which  may,  however,  be  worthy  of 
some  attention)  show  how  enthusiasm  and  prejudice  can  cal 
culate  !  Spain,  assailed  by  the  whole  power  of  France,  has 
already  leisure  for  an  American  quarrel,  and  can  even  spare 
troops  to  recover  a  superfluous  territory  on  the  Mississippi  ! 
The  inveterate  habits  and  pursuits  of  a  whole  people,  in 
another  hemisphere,  arc,  against  the  repulsion  of  still  exist 
ing  causes,  to  pass  to  opposite  extremes  in  consequence  of  a 
revolution  in  Europe  yet  in  its  earliest  infancy,  and  of  which 
the  transatlantic  effect  (even  if  in  Europe  the  revolution  were 
established)  would  be  a  problem  !  Great  Britain,  with  a 
vast  increase  of  debt,  is  to  find  her  account  in  casting  from 
her  our  market  for  her  manufactures,  in  rejecting  our  com 
modities  essential  to  her  colonies  and  convenient  to  herself, 
for  the  purpose  of  patronizing  a  country,  on  the  permanency 
of  whose  connection  she  cannot  rely,  many  of  whose  produc 
tions  come  in  competition  with  those  of  her  own  colonies,  and 
in  which  the  passage  from  the  actual  state  of  things  to  that 


216  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

which  is  contemplated,  must  be  reluctant  and  slow,  and  lia 
ble  to  endless  interruptions  and  relapses  !  It  is  forgotten, 
too,  that  this  interesting  section  of  the  globe  during  all  this 
tedious  and  doubtful  process,  may  and  must  contribute  to 
nourish  our  growth,  while  it  can  scarcely  rival  us  in  any 
thing.  It  is  forgotten  that,  if  it  continues  to  lean  upon  the 
parent  state,  it  is  not  likely,  under  the  pressure  of  colonial 
restrictions,  to  flourish  to  our  prejudice  or  even  to  flourish  at 
all,  but  may  serve  to  strengthen  and  enrich  us  ;  and  that,  if 
it  becomes  independent,  after  our  example,  it  will  be  far 
more  natural  that  we  should  benefit  and  reflect  lustre  and 
power  upon  each  other,  than  that  Great  Britain  should  find 
in  the  south  the  means  of  humbling  the  other  branches  of  the 
great  family  of  the  west. 

"From  the  newspapers  it  would  seem  that  France  and 
Austria  are  on  the  eve  of  war.  Yet  I  have  been  told  that  it 
is  not  so.  It  is,  I  believe,  certain  that  France  has  changed  her 
tone  (from  haughtiness  and  menace  to  conciliation)  towards 
Austria,  since  the  discomfitures  in  Spain.  This  is  not  con 
clusive  proof,  however. 

"  The  report  that  Lucien  Bonaparte  has  requested  of  a 
British  minister  a  passport  to  go  to  America  is,  I  understand 
from  a  very  respectable  quarter,  true. 

"  The  result  of  our  elections  will  now  soon  be  known.  I 
trust  they  will  be  favorable  to  the  measures  of  our  govern 
ment.  I  need  not  say  how  sincerely  and  anxiously  I  wish 
that,  with  reference  to  yourself  personally,  they  may  give 
you  all  the  honor  which  the  suffrages  of  our  people  can 
bestow." 

ME.    PINKNEY    TO   MB.    MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.)  LONDON,  Sept.  Wth,  1808. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — I  intended  to  have  inclosed  in  my  private 
letter  of  the  7th  by  Mr.  Bethune,  who  left  town  on  the  even 
ing  of  that  day  for  Falinouth,  to  embark  in  the  British. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  217 

packet,  a  triplicate  of  my  public  letter  of  the  4th  of  August, 
but  in  my  hurry  I  omitted  it.  I  transmit  it  now  by  Mr. 
Young,  our  consul  at  Madrid,,  who  is  about  to  sail  from 
Gravesend  for  New- York,  and  I  beg  to  renew  my  request 
that  the  slight  variations  from  the  original  and  duplicate, 
which  you  will  find  in  the  line  marked  in  the  margin  with  a 
pencil,  may  be  adopted.  The  only  one  of  these  corrections, 
however,  about  which  I  am  in  the  least  anxious,  is  in  the 
fourth  paragraph  from  the  end,  which  in  my  rough  draft 
reads  thus,  "  at  the  close  of  the  interview,  I  observed,  that, 
as  the  footing  upon  which  this  interview  has,  &c/;  This 
awkward  iteration  of  the  word  interview  (if  riot  actually 
avoided  in  the  original  and  duplicate,  as  perhaps  it  is)  I 
really  wish  corrected. 

"  Mr.  Canning's  reply  to  my  note  not  making  its  appear 
ance,  I  went  this  morning  to  Downing-street  to  inquire  about 
it ;  but  both  Mr.  Canning  and  Mr.  Hammond  were  in  the 
country.  I  shall  not  omit  to  press  for  the  answer  (without, 
however,  giving  unnecessary  offence)  until  I  obtain  it,  or 
have  the  delay  explained.  It  is  possible  that,  when  received, 
it  may  be  found  to  adopt  our  proposal,  and  that  they  are 
merely  taking  time  to  connect  with  their  compliance  a  long 
vindication  of  their  orders.  This  is  one  way  of  accounting 
for  the  delay. 

"It  is  also  possible  that  they  are  actually  undecided, 
and  that  they  wish  to  procrastinate  and  keep  back  their  an 
swer  until  they  can  understand  by  the  British  packet  (ex 
pected  very  soon)  the  workings  of  the  embargo,  and  of  the 
Spanish  views  in  America  ;  until  they  can  take  measure  of 
our  elections  ;  until  they  can  ascertain  what  is  to  be  the 
course  of  France  towards  us  ;  until  the  state  of  Europe,  so 
flattering  to  their  hopes,  shall  improve  yet  more,  or  at  any 
rate  be  past  the  danger  of  a  relapse,  &c.,  &c.  All  this  is 
possible  ;  but  I  continue  to  think  that  they  will  reject  what 
I  have  proposed.  Their  present  elevation  is  exactly  calcu- 


218  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

lated  (aided  by  false  estimates  of  America)  to  mislead  them 
to  such  a  conclusion.  They  are  hardly  in  a  temper  of  mind 
to  appreciate  the  motives  of  the  President's  conduct.  The 
chances  are  that  they  will  ascribe  the  assurances  I  have  been 
authorized  to  give  them,  as  to  the  embargo  law,  to  a  mere 
anxiety  to  get  rid  of  that  law  ;  and  that  they  will  only  see 
in  those  assurances  a  pledge  that  we  are  heartily  tired  of  our 
actual  position,  and  are  ready  to  abandon  it  at  any  rate 
They  will  be  apt,  in  a  word,  to  presume  (believing,  as  I  am 
sure  they  do,  that  we  will  not  venture  upon  extremities  with 
them)  that,  by  holding  off,  they  will  compel  us  to  retract 
our  late  measures  (the  most  wise  and  honorable  ever  adopted 
by  a  government),  and  to  fall  at  their  feet.  You  must  not 
be  surprised  if  they  should  be  found  to  expect  even  more 
than  this  from  the  pressure  of  the  embargo.  I  allude  to  the 
influence  which  many  hope  it  will  have  upon  our  elections, 
in  bringing  about  a  change  of  men  as  well  as  of  measures. 
In  this  I  trust  they  will  be  signally  disappointed. 

"  If  (party  spirit  out  of  the  question)  the  conduct  of  our 
government  towards  the  two  powers  that  keep  the  world  in 
an  uproar  with  their  quarrel,  has  been  really  disapproved  in 
the  United  States,  the  overture  just  made  to  both  cannot 
fail  to  subdue  it.  I  anticipate  from  it  a  perfect  union  of 
sentiment  in  favor  of  any  attitude  which  it  may  be  necessary 
to  take.  It  puts  us  so  unequivocally  in  the  right,  that, 
although  we  were  not,  I  think,  bound  to  make  it,  it  is  im 
possible  not  to  rejoice  that  it  has  been  made.  In  any  event 
it  must  be  salutary  and  must  do  us  honor.  The  overture, 
however,  would  seem  to  be  more  advantageous  to  Great 
Britain  than  France.  For  if  you  should  take  off  the  embargo 
as  to  France  and  continue  it  as  to  Great  Britain,  your  pro 
ceeding  would  have  little  substance  in  it,  considered  as  a 
benefit  to  France,  unless  and  until  you  ivent  to  war  against 
Gveat  Britain.  But  the  converse  of  this  would  have  a  vast 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  219 

effect  in  favor  of  Great  Britain,  whether  you  went  to  war 
with  France  or  not. 

"  It  does  not  follow,  and  certainly  is  not  true,  that  the 
overture  is  for  that  reason  unjust  to  France ;  although  I 
think  it  the  clearest  case  in  the  world  that  Great  Britain  is 
(at  least)  in  par i  delicto  with  France  on  the  subject  of  that 
code  of  violence  which  drives  neutrals  from  the  seas  and 
justice-  from  the  world. 

"  It  is  said  here,  by  those  who  affect  to  know,  that  a  con 
ciliatory  conduct  by  France  toward  the  United  States  will 
not  be  acceptable  to  this  government ;  and  certainly  Mar 
riott's  book  affords  some  reason  for  suspicion  that  a  repeal 
of  the  French  decrees  would  not  be  followed  by  that  of  the 
British  orders.  Such  infatuation  is  scarcely  credible,  yet  it 
would  not  be  much  worse  than  their  present  backwardness 
to  avail  themselves  of  what  has  lately  been  said  to  them. 

"After  all,  it  will  be  safest  (for  a  time  longer)  to  keep 
opinion  as  much  as  possible  in  suspense — and  I  need  not  re 
peat  my  assurances  that  the  moment  I  receive  the  informa 
tion  I  am  expecting,  no  effort  shall  be  spared  to  put  you  in 
possession  of  it." 

MR.    PINKNEY    TO    MR.    MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.)  LONDON,  Sept.  list,  1808. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — The  Hope  arrived  at  Cowes  from  France 
the  13th. 

"Not  having  heard  from  Mr.  Canning,  although  he 
returned  to  London  the  16th,  I  called  again  yesterday  at 
Downing-street,  and  was  assured  that  the  answer  to  my  note 
would  be  sent  to  night  or  early  to-morrow  morning.  Mr. 
Atwater  will  of  course  be  able  to  leave  town  on  Friday,  and 
embark  on  Saturday  with  a  copy  of  it. 

"  I  have  been  told  since  the  arrival  of  the  last  British 
packet  (but  do  not  believe  it),  that  there  is  more  probability 
than  I  had  anticipated,  that  the  late  events  in  Spain  and 


220  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

Portugal  (which  ought  not  to  be  considered  as  deciding  on 
any  thing)  will  have  an  effect  on  public  opinion  in  America 
against  the  continuance  of  the  embargo,  and  favorable  to  all 
the  purposes  of  Great  Britain.  If  this  were  true,  I  should 
think  it  was  deeply  to  be  lamented.  I  may  misunderstand 
the  subject ;  but  I  cannot  persuade  myself  that  any  thing 
that  has  happened  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  ought  to  in 
duce  us  in  any  degree  to  retreat  from  our  present  system. 

"  If  we  should  resolve  to  trade  with  Spain  and  Portugal 
(Great  Britain  and  France  persisting  in  their  orders  and  de 
crees)  in  any  way  to  which  Great  Britain  would  not  object, 
we  must  suspend  the  embargo  as  to  those  countries  only  or 
as  to  those  countries  and  Great  Britain,  or  we  must  repeal 
it  altogether. 

"  The  temptation  to  the  first  of  these  courses,  is,  even 
in  a  commercial  sense,  inconsiderable  ;  the  objection  to  it 
endless.  The  object  to  be  gained  (if  no  more  was  gained 
than  ought  to  be  gained)  would  be  trifling.  There  could 
indeed  be  no  gain.  An  inadequate  market  redundantly  sup 
plied  would  be  more  injurious  than  no  market  at  all  ;  it  would 
be  a  lure  to  destruction,  and  nothing  more.  A  suspension  of 
the  embargo,  so  limited  in  its  nature  as  this  would  be  (sup 
posing  it  to  be  in  fact  what  it  would  be  in  form),  would  have 
a  most  unequal  and  invidious  operation  in  the  different  quar 
ters  of  the  Union,  of  which  the  various  commodities  would 
not  in  the  ports  of  Portugal  and  Spain  be  in  equal  demand. 

"  A  war  with  France  would  be  inevitable  ;  and  such  a 
war  (so  produced),  from  winch  we  could  not  hope  to  derive 
either  honor  or  advantage,  would  place  us  at  the  mercy  of 
Great  Britain,  and,  on  that  account,  would  in  the  end  do 
more  to  cripple  and  humble  us  than  any  disaster  that  could 
otherwise  befall  us. 

"  The  actual  state  of  Spain  and  Portugal  is  moreover  not 
to  be  relied  upon.  My  first  opinion  on  that  subject  remains; 
but  even  the  most  sanguine  will  admit  that  there  is  great 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  221 

room  for  doubt.  The  Emperor  of  France  is  evidently  col 
lecting  a  mighty  force  for  the  reduction  of  Spain ;  and  Por 
tugal  must  share  its  fate.  And  even  if  that  force  should  be 
destined  (as  some  suppose)  first  to  contend  with  Austria,  the 
speedy  subjugation  of  Spain  is  not  the  less  certain.  If 
France  should  succeed,  Spain  and  Portugal  would  again  fall 
under  the  British  orders  of  November,  as  well  as  under  the 
operation  of  the  French  decrees.  Our  cargoes  would  scarcely 
have  found  their  way  to  the  ocean  in  search  of  the  boasted 
market,  before  they  would  be  once  more  in  a  state  of  prohi 
bition,  and  we  should,  in  the  mean  time,  have  incurred  the 
scandal  of  suffering  an  improvident  thirst  of  gain  to  seduce 
us  from  our  principles  into  a  dilemma  presenting  no  alterna 
tive  but  loss  in  all  the  senses  of  the  word. 

"  But  it  is  not  event  certain  what  Great  Britain  would 
herself  finally  say  to  such  a  partial  suspension  of  the  embargo. 
She  would  doubtless  &i  first  approve  of  it.  But  her  ultimate 
course  (especially  if  war  between  France  and  the  United 
States  were  not  the  immediate  consequence,  or  if  the  mea 
sure  were  eventually  less  beneficial  to  herself  than  might  be 
supposed  at  the  outset),  ought  not  to  be  trusted.  That  she 
should  approve  at  first,  is  hardly  to  be  questioned,  and  the 
considerations  upon  which  she  would  do  so,  are  precisely 
those  which  should  dissuade  us  from  it.  Some  of  these  are — 
the  aid  it  would  afford  to  her  allies,  as  well  as  to  her  own 
troops  co-operating  with  them,  and  its  consequent  tendency 
to  destroy  every  thing  like  system  in  our  conduct — its  ten 
dency  to  embroil  us  with  France,  its  tendency  to  induce  us, 
by  overstocking  a  limited  market,  to  make  our  commodities 
of  no  value — to  dissipate  our  capital — to  ruin  our  merchants 
without  benefiting  our  agriculture — to  destroy  our  infant 
manufactures  without  benefiting  our  commerce — its  tendency 
to  habituate  us  to  a  trammelled  trade,  and  to  fit  us  for  ac 
quiescence  in  maritime  despotism.  But  there  are  other 
reasons — our  trade  with  Spain  and  Portugal,  while  it  lasted, 


222  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

would  be  a  circuitous  one  with  Great  Britain  and  her  colo 
nies,  for  their  benefit.  Our  productions  would  be  carried  in 
the  first  instance  to  Spain  and  Portugal,  would  be  bought 
there  for  British  account,  and  would  find  their  way  to  the 
West  Indies  or  centre  here,  as  British  convenience  might  re- 
^uire,  and  thus  in  effect  the  embargo  be  removed  as  to  Great 
Britain,  while  it  continued  as  to  France,  and  we  professed  to 
continue  it  as  to  both.  And  if  any  profits  should  arise  from 
this  sordid  traffic,  they  would  become  a  fund,  to  enable  us  to 
import  into  the  United  States  directly  or  indirectly  the 
manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  and  thus  relieve  her  in  an 
other  way,  while  her  orders  would  prevent  us  from  receiving 
the  commodities  of  her  enemy.  It  would  be  far  better  openly 
to  take  off  the  embargo  as  to  Great  Britain,  than  while 
affecting  to  continue  it  as  to  that  power,  to  do  what  must 
rescue  her  completely  (and  that  too  without  advantage  to 
ourselves)  from  the  pressure  of  it,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
would  promote  her  views  against  France  in  Portugal  and 
Spain. 

"  As  to  the  withdrawing  the  embargo  as  to  Great  Britain, 
as  well  as  Spain  and  Portugal,  while  the  British  orders'  are 
unrepealed,  the  objections  to  that  course  are  just  as  strong  now 
as  they  were  four  months  ago.  The  change  in  Spain  and 
Portugal  (if  it  were  even  likely  to  last)  cannot  touch  the 
principle  of  the  embargo,  as  regards  Great  Britain,  who  re 
asserts  her  orders  of  November,  in  the  very  explanations  of 
the  4th  of  July,  under  which  we  must  trade  with  those 
countries,  if  we  trade  with  them  at  all.  If  we  include  Great 
Britain  in  the  suspension,  and  exclude  France,  we  do  now 
what  we  have  declined  to  do  before,  for  the  sake  of  a  delu 
sive  commerce,  which  may  perish  before  it  can  be  enjoyed, 
and  cannot  in  any  event  be  enjoyed  with  credit,  with  advan 
tage,  or  even  with  safety.  We  take  part  at  once  with  Great 
Britain  against  France,  at  a  time  the  least  suited  that  could 
be  imagined  to  such  a  determination ;  at  a  time  when  it 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  223 

might  be  said  we  were  emboldened  by  French  reverses,  to  do 
what  before  we  could  not  resolve  upon,  or  even  tempted  by 
a  prospect  of  scanty  profit,  exaggerated  by  our  cupidity  and 
impatience  to  forget  what  was  due  to  consistency,  to  charac 
ter,  and  permanent  prosperity.  We  sanction  too  the  mari 
time  pretensions  which  insult  and  injure  us ;  we  throw  our 
selves,  bound  hand  and  foot,  upon  the  generosity  of  a  gov 
ernment  that  has  hitherto  refused  us  justice ;  and  all  this 
when  the  affair  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  a  host  of  other 
wrongs,  are  unredressed,  and  when  Great  Britain  has  just 
rejected  an  overture  which  she  must  have  accepted  with 
eagerness  if  her  views  were  not  such  as  it  became  us  to  sus 
pect  and  guard  against. 

"To  repeal  the  embargo  altogether  would  be  preferable 
to  either  of  the  other  courses,  but  would  notwithstanding  be 
so  fatal  to  us  in  all  respects,  that  we  should  long  feel  the 
wound  it  would  inflict,  unless  indeed  some  other  expedient, 
as  strong  at  least  and  as  efficacious  in  all  it  bearings,  can  (as 
I  fear  it  cannot)  be  substituted  in  its  place. 

"  War  would  seem  to  be  the  unavoidable  result  of  such 
a  step.     If  our  commerce  should  not  flourish  in  consequence 
of  this  measure,  nothing  would  be  gained  by  it  but  dishonor ; 
and  how  it  could  be   carried  on  to  any  valuable  purpose,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  show.     If  our  commerce  should  flourish 
in  spite  of  French  and  British  edicts,  and  the  miserable 
state  of  the  world  ;  in  spite  of  war  with  France,  if  that 
should  happen,  it  would,  I  doubt  not,  be  assailed  in  some 
other  form.     The  spirit  of  monopoly  has  seized  the  people 
and  government  of  this  country.     We  shall  not  under  any 
circumstances  be  tolerated  as  rivals  in  navigation  and  trade 
— it  is  in  vain  to  hope  that   Great  Britain  will  voluntarily 
foster  the  naval  means  of  the  United  States.     All  her  prej 
udices — all  her  calculations  are  against  it.     Even  as  allies 
we  should  be  subjects  of  jealousy.     It  would  be  endless  to 
enumerate  in  detail  the  evils  which  would  cling  to  us  in  this 


224  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

new  career  of  vassalage  and  meanness,  and  tedious  to  pursue 
our  backward  course  to  the  extinction  of  that  very  trade,  to 
which  we  had  sacrificed  every  thing  else. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  persevere  we  must  gain  our 
purpose  at  last.  By  complying  with  the  little  policy  of  the 
moment,  we  shall  be  lost.  By  a  great  and  systematic  adhe 
rence  to  principle  we  shall  find  the  end  to  our  difficulties. 
The  embargo  and  the  loss  of  our  trade  are  deeply  felt  here, 
and  will  be  felt  with  more  severity  every  day.  The  wheat 
harvest  is  like  to  be  alarmingly  short,  and  the  state  of  the 
continent  will  augment  the  evil.  The  discontents  among 
their  manufactures  are  only  quieted  for  the  moment  by  tem 
porary  causes.  Cotton  is  rising,  and  soon  will  be  scarce. 
Unfavorable  events  on  the  continent  will  subdue  the  temper 
unfriendly  to  wisdom  and  justice  which  now  prevails  here. 
But  above  all,  the  world  will,  I  trust,  be  convinced  that  our 
firmness  is  not  to  be  shaken — our  measures  have  not  been 
without  effect.  They  have  not  been  decisive,  because  we 
have  not  been  thought  capable  of  persevering  in  self-denial, 
if  that  can  be  called  self-denial  which  is  no  more  than  pru 
dent  abstinence  from  destruction  and  dishonor. 

"  I  ought  to  mention  that  I  have  been  told  by  a  most 
respectable  American  merchant  here,  that  large  quantities 
of  such  woollen  cloths  as  are  prohibited  by  our  non-importa 
tion  act,  have  been  and  continue  to  be  sent  to  Canada,  with 
the  view  of  being  smuggled  into  the  United  States. 

"  I  beg  you  to  excuse  the  frequency  and  length  of  my 
private  letters. 

"  I  need  not  tell  you  that  I  am  induced  to  trouble  you 
with  my  hasty  reflections,  because  I  think  you  stand  in  need 
of  them.  I  give  them  merely  because  I  believe  that  you 
are  entitled  to  know  the  impressions  which  a  public  servant 
on  this  side  of  the  water  receives  from  a  view  of  our  situa 
tion." 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  225 


MR.   PINKNEY   TO   MR.    MADISON. 

"LONDON,  September  24^/i,  1808. 

"  SIR  : — I  am  now  enabled  to  transmit  to  you  a  copy  of 
Mr.  Canning's  answer,  received  only  last  night,  to  my  note 
of  the  23d  of  August. 

"  This  answer  was  accompanied  by  a  letter,  of  which  also 
a  copy  is  inclosed,  recapitulating  what  Mr.  Canning  sup 
poses  to  be  '  the  substance  of  what  has  passed  between  us 
at  our  several  interviews,  previous  to  the  presentation  of  my 
official  letter/ 

"  To  the  accompanying  paper  I  think  it  indispensable 
that  I  should  reply  without  delay3  supporting,  with  polite 
ness,  but  with  firmness,  the  statements  which  I  have  already 
had  the  honor  to  make  to  you  of  the  conversations  in  question, 
and  correcting  some  errors  upon  points  which  Mr.  Canning 
has  thought  fit  to  introduce  into  his  letter,  but  which  I  had 
not  supposed  it  necessary  to  mention  in  detail  in  my  dis 
patches. 

"  I  shall  not  detain  Mr.  Atwater  with  a  view  to  this  re 
ply  ;  but  will  take  care  to  forward  a  copy  of  it  by  an  early 
conveyance.  My  official  note  and  the  answer  to  it  being 
perfectly  intelligible,  Mr.  Canning's  misapprehensions  (for 
such  they  are)  of  previous  verbal  communications,  can 
scarcely  be  very  important  in  a  public  view  ;  but  it  is,  ne 
vertheless,  of  some  consequence  that  whatever  may  be  the 
objeet  of  his  statement,  I  should  not  make  myself  a  party  to 
its  inaccuracies,  by  even  a  tacit  admission  of  them. 

"I  do  not  perceive  that  a  formal  reply  to  the  more 
official  paper,  can  now  be  of  any  advantage ;  but  I  shall 
probably  take  occasion  to  combine  with  my  reply  to  the  one 
paper  some  observations  upon  the  other. 

"  I  regret  extremely,  that  the  views  which  I  have  been 
instructed  to  lay  before  this  government  have  not  been  met 
by  it  as  I  had  at  first  been  led  to  expect.  The  overture  can- 
15 


226  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

not  fail,  however,  to  place  in  a  strong  light  the  just  and  libe 
ral  sentiments  by  which  our  government  is  animated,  and  in 
other  respects  to  be  useful  and  honorable  to  our  country/' 


MB.    PINKNEY    TO    ME.    MADISON. 

"LONDON,  November  25th,  1808. 

"  SIR  : — I  have  the  honor  to  send  inclosed  a  copy  of  a  let 
ter,  received  last  night,  from  Mr.  Canning,  in  answer  to  my 
letter  to  him  of  the  10th  of  last  month. 

"  The  tone  of  this  letter  renders  it  impossible  to  reply  to 
it  with  a  view  to  a  discussion  of  what  it  contains,  although 
it  is  not  without  further  inadvertencies  as  to  facts,  and  ma 
ny  of  the  observations  are  open  to  exception.  I  intend,  how 
ever,  to  combine  with  an  acknowledgment  of  the  receipt  of  it 
two  short  explanations.  The  first  will  relate  to  the  new  and 
extraordinary  conjecture,  which  it  intimates,  that  my  au 
thority  was  contingent ;  and  the  second  will  remind  Mr. 
Canning  that  my  letter  of  the  10th  of  October  does  not,  as 
he  imagines,  leave  unexplained  the  remark  that,  "  the  pro 
visional  nature  of  my  offer,  to  make  my  proposal  in  writing, 
arose  out  of  circumstances;  "  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  "  the 
explanation  immediately  follows  the  remark." 


ME.    PINKNEY    TO   ME.    MADISON. 

"LONDON,  December  24th,  1808. 

SIE  : — I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive,  by  the  British 
packet,  your  letters  of  the  9th  and  10th  of  last  month. 

The  assurance  contained  in  the  first  of  these  letters,  of 
the  President's  approbation  of  the  manner  in  which  my  late 
instructions  were  executed,  affords  me  the  most  lively  satis- 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  227 

faction  ;  and  I  beg  you  to  accept  my  sincere  thanks  for  the 
kind  and  flattering  terms  in  which  you  have  been  so  good  as 
to  communicate  it." 


MR.    PINKNEY    TO    MB.    MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.)  LONDOX,  January  23c?,  1809. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — -I  dined  at  Mr.  Canning's  with  the  Corps 
Diplomatique,  on  the  18th,  the  day  appointed  for  the  cele 
bration  of  the  Queen's  birth-day.  Before  dinner  he  came 
up  to  me,  and,  entering  into  conversation,  adverted  to  a  re 
port  which  he  said  had  reached  him,  that  the  American 
ministers  (here  and  in  France)  were  about  to  be  recalled. 
I  replied  that  I  was  not  aware  that  such  a  step  had  already 
been  resolved  upon.  He  then  took  me  aside,  and  observed 
that,  according  to  his  view  of  the  late  proceedings  of  Con 
gress,  the  resolutions  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
committee  of  the  whole,  appeared  to  be  calculated,  if  passed 
into  a  law,  to  remove  the  impediments  to  an  arrangement 
with  the  United  States  upon  the  two  subjects  of  the  orders 
in  council  and  the  Chesapeake — that  the  President's  procla 
mation  had  in  fact  formed  the  great  obstacle  to  the  adoption 
of  what  we  had  lately  proposed,  and  that  every  body  knew 
that  it  had  formed  the  sole  obstacle  to  adjustment  in  the 
other  affair — that  the  renewal  of  commercial  intercourse 
with  America,  while  that  proclamation  remained  in  force, 
would  have  been  attended  with  this  embarrassment :,  that 
British  merchant  vessels,  going  into  our  ports,  would  have 
found  there  the  commissioned  cruisers  of  the  enemy  in  a  ca 
pacity  to  assail  them  as  soon  as  they  should  put  to  sea  ; 
while  British  armed  vessels,  having  no  asylum  in  those 
ports,  would  not  have  been  equally  in  a  situation  to  afford 
them  protection — that  if  this  was  not  insisted  upon  at  large 
in  his  reply  to  my  official  letter  of  the  23d  of  August,  it  Was 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

because  it  was  difficult  to  do  so  without  giving  to  that  paper 
somewhat  of  an  unfriendly  appearance — that  as  the  above 
mentioned  embarrassment,  produced  by  the  proclamation  of 
the  President,  and  the  right  which  Great  Britain  supposed 
she  had  to  complain  of  the  continuance  of  that  proclama 
tion,  proceeded,  not  from  the  exclusion  of  British  ships  of 
war  from  American  ports,  but  from,  the  discrimination  in 
that  respect  between  Great  Britain  and  her  adversaries ; 
and  as  the  resolutions  of  the  House  of  Kepresentatives  took 
away  that  discrimination,  although  not  perhaps  in  the  man 
ner  which  Great  Britain  could  have  wished,  they  were  will 
ing  to  consider  the  law  to  which  the  resolutions  were  pre 
paratory,  as  putting  an  end  to  the  difficulties  which  pre 
vented  satisfactory  adjustments  with  us.  He  then  said  that 
they  were,  of  course,  desirous  of  being  satisfied  by  us,  that 
the  view  which  they  thus  took  of  the  resolutions  in  question 
was  correct ;  and  he  intimated  a  wish  that  we  should  say 
that  the  intention  of  the  American  government  was  in  con 
formity  with  that  view.  He  added,  that  it  was  another 
favorable  circumstance  that  the  non-importation  system  was 
about  to  be  applied  to  all  the  belligerents. 

"  As  this  occurred  rather  unexpectedly  (although  my  re 
ception  at  court,  and  other  circumstances  of  much  more  con 
sequence,  had  seemed  to  give  notice  of  some  change),  and  as 
I  did  not  think  it  advisable  to  say  much,  even  informally, 
upon  topics  of  such  delicacy  at  so  short  a  warning,  I  pro 
posed  to  Mr.  Canning  that  I  should  call  on  him  in  the  course 
of  a  day  or  two,  for  the  purpose  of  a  more  free  conversation 
upon  what  he  had  mentioned,  than  was  then  practicable.  To 
this  he  readily  assented ;  and  it  was  settled  that  I  should 
see  him  on  the  Sunday  following  (yesterday),  at  12  o'clock, 
at  his  own  house.  I  thought  it  prudent,  however,  to  suggest 
at  once,  that  the  resolutions  of  the  House  of  Kepresenta 
tives  struck  me  as  they  did  Mr.  Canning  ;  and  (supposing 
myself  to  be  warranted  by  your  private  letter  of  the  25th 


LITE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  229 

of  November,  in  going  so  far),  I  added,  that  although  it  was 
evident  that  if  Great  Britain  and  France  adhered  to  their 
present  systems,  the  resolutions  had  a  necessary  tendency  to 
hasten  a  disagreeable  crisis,  I  was  sure  that  my  government, 
retaining  the  spirit  of  moderation  which  had  always  charac 
terized  it,  would  be  most  willing  that  Great  Britain  should 
consider  them  as  calculated  to  furnish  an  opportunity  for  ad 
vances  to  renewed  intercourse  and  honorable  explanations. 

"  The  interview  yesterday  was  of  some  length.  An  ar 
rangement  with  me  was  out  of  the  question.  An  assurance 
from  me  as  to  the  intention  of  the  American  government 
in  passing  (if  indeed  it  had  passed),  an  Exclusion  and  Non- 
intercourse  law,  applicable  to  all  the  powers  at  war,  was 
equally  out  of  the  question.  I  had  no  authority  to  take  any 
official  step  in  the  business  ;  and  I  should  not  have  taken  any 
without  further  instructions  from  you,  founded  upon  the  new 
state  of  things,  even  if  my  former  authority  had  not  been  at 
an  end.  My  object,  therefore,  was  merely  to  encourage  suit 
able  approaches  on  the  part  of  the  government  by  such  un 
official  representations  as  I  might  be  justified  in  making. 

"  I  will  not  persecute  you  with  a  detail  of  my  suggestions 
to  Mr.  Canning,  intended  to  place  the  conduct  of  our  govern 
ment  in  its  true  light,  and  to  second  the  effect  which  its  firm 
ness  and  wisdom  had  manifestly  produced.  It  will  be  suffi 
cient  to  state  that,  while  I  declined  (indeed  it  was  not 
pressed),  giving  or  allowing  Mr.  Canning  to  expect  any  such 
assurances  as  I  had  understood  him  to  allude  to  in  our  last 
conversation,  I  said  every  thing  which  I  thought  consistent 
with  discretion,  to  confirm  him  in  his  disposition  to  seek  the 
re-establishment  of  good  understanding  with  us,  and  espe 
cially  to  see  in  the  expected  act  of  Congress,  if  it  should  pass, 
an  opening  to  which  the  most  scrupulous  could  not  object,  as 
well  as  the  strongest  motives  of  prudence  for  such  advances, 
before  it  should  be  too  late,  on  the  side  of  this  country,  as 
could  scarcely  fail  to  produce  the  best  results. 


230  LIFE   QF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

"  It  was  of  some  importance  to  turn  their  attention  here 
without  loss  of  time,  to  the  manner  of  any  proceeding  which 
might  he  in  contemplation.  It  seemed  that  the  resolutions 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  if  enacted  into  a  law,  might 
render  it  proper,  if  not  indispensable,  that  the  affair  of  the 
Chesapeake  should  he  settled  at  the  same  time  with  the  af 
fair  of  the  orders  and  embargo  ;  and  this  was  stated  by  Mr. 
Canning  to  be  his  opinion  and  his  wish  It  followed  that 
the  whole  matter  ought  to  be  settled  at  Washington  ;  and 
as  this  was,  moreover,  desirable  on  various  other  grounds,  I 
suggested  that  it  would  be  well  (in  case  a  special  mission 
did  not  meet  their  approbation),  that  the  necessary  powers 
should  be  sent  to  Mr.  Erskine  ;  but  I  offered  my  interven 
tion  for  the  purpose  of  guarding  them  against  deficiencies  in 
those  powers,  and  of  smoothing  the  way  to  a  successful  issue. 
Mr.  Canning  gave  no  opinion  on  this  point. 

"  Although  I  forbear  to  trouble  you  in  detail  with  what 
I  said  to  Mr.  Canning,  it  is  fit  that  you  should  know  what 
was  said  by  him  on  every  point  of  importance. 

"  In  the  course  of  conversation  he  proposed  several  ques 
tions  for  reflection,  relative  to  our  late  proposal,  which,  when 
that  proposal  was  made,  were  not  even  glanced  at.  The 
principal  were  the  two  following  : 

"  1.  In  case  they  should  now  wish,  either  through  me  or 
through  Mr.  Erskine,  to  meet  us  upon  the  ground  of  the  late 
overture,  in  what  way  was  the  effectual  operation  of  our  em 
bargo  as  to  France,  after  it  should  be  taken  off  as  to  Great 

O  7 

Britain,  to  be  secured  ?  It  was  evident,  he  said,  that  if  we 
should  do  no  more  than  refuse  clearances  for  the  ports  of 
France,  &c.,  or  prohibit,  under  penalties, voyages  to  such  ports, 
the  effect  which  my  letter  of  the  21st  of  August,  and  my 
published  instructions  professed  to  have  in  view,  would  not 
be  produced  ;  for  that  vessels,  although  cleared  for  Brit 
ish  ports,  might,  when  once  out,  go  to  France  instead  of  com 
ing  here.  That  this  would  in  fact  be  so  (whatever  the  pen- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  231 

alties  which  the  American  law  might  denounce  against  of 
fenders),  could  not,  he  imagined,  be  doubted  ;  and  he  pre 
sumed,  therefore,  as  he  could  see  no  possible  objection  to  it 
(on  our  part),  that  the  government  of  the  United  States 
would  not,  after  it  had  itself  declared  a  commerce  with  France 
illegal,  and  its  citizens  who  should  engage  in  it  delinquents, 
complain  if  the  naval  force  of  this  country  should  assist  in 
preventing  such  a  commerce. 

"  2.  He  asked  whether  there  would  be  any  objection  to 
asking  the  repeal  of  the  British  orders  and  of  the  American 
embargo  contemporaneous  ?  He  seemed  to  consider  this  as 
indispensable.  Nothing  could  be  less  admissible,  he  said, 
than  that  Great  Britain,  after  rescinding  her  orders,  should, 
for  any  time,  however  short,  be  left  subject  to  the  embargo 
in  common  with  France,  whose  decrees  were  subsisting,  with 
a  view  to  an  experiment  upon  France,  or  with  any  other  view. 
The  United  States  could  not  upon  their  own  principles  apply 
the  embargo  to  this  country  one  moment  after  the  orders 
were  removed,  or  decline  after  that  event  to  apply  it  exclusive 
ly  to  France  and  the  powers  connected  with  her.  Great 
Britain  would  dishonor  herself  by  any  arrangement  which 
should  have  such  an  effect,  &c. 

"  You  will  recollect  that  my  instructions  (particularly 
your  letter  of  the  30th  of  April),  had  rather  appeared  to  pro 
ceed  upon  the  idea  that  the  British  orders  were  to  be  repealed 
before  the  embago  was  removed  as  to  England  ;  and  it  is 
probable  that  a  perusal  of  these  instructions  led  to  Mr.  Can 
ning's  inquiry. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  I  thought  I  might  presume  that  this 
government  had  at  last  determined  to  sacrifice  to  us  their 
orders  in  council  in  the  way  we  had  before  proposed  (although 
Mr.  Canning  once,  and  only  once,  talked  of  amendment  and 
modification,  which  I  immediately  discouraged,  as  well  as  of 
repeal) ,  and  to  offer  the  amende  honorable,  in  the  case  of  the 
V.  esapeake,  provided  Congress  should  be  found  to  have  passed 


232  LIFE   OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

a  law  in  conformity  with  the  resolutions  of  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives.  I  ought  to  say,  however,  that  Mr.  Can 
ning  did  not  precisely  pledge  himself  to  that  effect  ;  and 
that  the  past  justifies  distrust.  The  result  of  the  elections 
in  America — the  unexpected  firmness  displayed  by  Congress 
and  the  nation — the  disappointments  in  Spain  and  elsewhere 
— a  perceptible  alteration  in  public  opinion  here  since  the 
last  intelligence  from  the  United  States — an  apprehension 
of  losing  our  market,  of  having  us  for  enemies,  &c.,  have 
apparently  made  a  deep  impression  upon  ministers  ;  but 
nothing  can  inspire  perfect  confidence  in  their  intentions  but 
an  impossible  forgetfulness  of  the  past,  or  the  actual  con 
clusion  of  an  arrangement  with  us.  In  a  few  days  I  may 
calculate  upon  hearing  from  you.  If  Congress  shall  have 
passed  the  expected  act,  the  case  to  which  Mr.  Canning  looks 
will  have  been  made,  and  he  may  be  brought  to  a  test  from 
which  it  will  be  difficult  to  escape.  Whatever  may  be  my 
instructions  I  shall  obey  them  with  fidelity  and  zeal ;  but  I 
sincerely  hope  they  will  not  make  it  my  duty  to  prefer  ad 
justment  here  to  adjustment  in  Washington.  I  am  firmly 
pursuaded  that  it  will  be  infinitely  better  that  the  business 
should  be  transacted  immediately  with  our  government ;  and, 
if  I  shall  be  at  liberty  to  do  so,  I  shall  continue  to  urge  that 
course. 

"  You  will  not  fail  to  perceive  that  the  ground  upon 
which  it  is  now  pretended  that  our  proposition  of  last  sum 
mer  was  rejected,  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  Mr.  Canning's 
note,  in  which  that  proposition  is  distinctly  rejected  upon 
other  grounds,  although  in  the  conclusion  of  the  note,  the 
President's  proclamation  is  introduced  by-tlie-by.  Besides, 
what  can  be  more  shallow  than  the  pretext  of  the  supposed 
embarrassment ! 

"  I  took  occasion  to  mention  at  the  close  of  our  conversa 
tion,  the  recent  appointment  of  Admiral  Berkely  to  the  Lis 
bon  station.  Mr.  Canning  said  that,  with  every  inclination 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  233 

to  consult  the  feelings  of  the  American  government  on  that 
subject,  it  was  impossible  for  the  admiralty  to  resist  the  claim 
of  that  officer  to  be  employed,  after  such  a  lapse  of  time  since 
his  recall  from  Halifax,-witho\it  bringing  him  to  a  court- 
martial.  The  usage  of  the  navy  was  in  that  respect  different 
from  that  of  the  army.  He  might,  however,  still  be  brought 
to  a  court-martial,  and  in  what  he  had  done,  he  had  acted 
wholly  without  authority,  &c.,  &c.  I  did  not  propose  to 
enter  into  any  discussion  upon  the  subject,  and  contented 
myself  with  lamenting  the  appointment  as  unfortunate. 

"  The  documents  laid  before  Congress  and  published  have 
had  a  good  effect  here.  Your  letter  to  Mr.  Erskine  I  have 
caused  to  be  printed  in  a  pamphlet,  with  my  letter  to  Mr. 
Canning  of  the  23d  of  August,  and  his  reply.  The  report 
of  the  committee  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  is  admitted 
to  be  a  most  able  paper,  and  has  been  published  in  the  Morn 
ing  Chronicle.  The  Times  newspaper  (notwithstanding  its 
former  violence  against  us),  agrees  that  our  overture  should 
have  been  accepted. 

"  The  opposition  in  Parliament  is  unanimous  on  this  sub 
ject,  although  divided  on  others.  Many  of  the  friends  of 
government  speak  well  of  our  overture,  and  almost  every 
body  disapproves  of  Mr.  Canning's  note.  The  tone  has 
changed,  too,  in  the  city.  In  short,  I  have  a  strong  hope 
that  the  eminent  wisdom  of  the  late  American  measures 
will  soon  be  practically  proved  to  the  confusion  of  their  op 
ponents. 

"  I  refer  you  to  the  newspapers  for  news  (in  the  highest 
degree  interesting)  and  for  the  debates.  See  particularly  Mr. 
Canning's  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the  19th,  as 
reported  in  the  Morning  Chronicle. 

"  P.  S. — As  it  was  possible  that  the  resolutions  of  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives  might  not  pass  into  a  law,  I  en 
deavored  to  accommodate  my  conversation  of  yesterday  to 


234  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

that  possibility,  at  the  same  time  that  I  did  not  refuse  to  let 
Mr.  Canning  see  that  I  supposed  the  law  would  pass. 

"I  have  omitted  to  mention  that  we  spoke  of  Mr. 
Sawyer's  letter  in  our  first  conversation,  and  that  during  the 
whole  of  the  evening,  Mr.  Canning  seemed  desirous  of  show 
ing,  by  more  than  usual  kindness  and  respect,  that  it  had 
made  no  unfavorable  impression.  I  incline  to  think  that  it 
has  rather  done  good  than  harm. 

"I  have  marked  this  letter  private,  because  I  under 
stood  Mr.  Canning  as  rather  speaking  confidentially  than  of 
ficially,  and  I  certainly  meant  so  to  speak  myself ;  but  you 
will  nevertheless  make  use  of  it  as  you  think  fit :  of  course  it 
will  not  in  any  event  be  published. 

"  A  third  embargo  breaker  has  arrived  at  Kinsale,  in  Ire 
land,  on  her  way  to  Liverpool.  She  is  called  the  Sally,  and 
is  of  Virginia,  with  more  than  three  hundred  hogsheads  of 
tobacco." 


MR.    PINKNEY    TO    ME.    MADISON. 
(  "PRIVATE.)  LONDOX,  May  3d,  1809. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  letter 
of  the  17th  of  March,  and  thank  you  sincerely  for  your  good 
wishes.  Permit  me  to  offer  my  cordial  congratulations  upon 
the  manner  in  which  you  have  been  called  to  the  Presidency. 
Such  a  majority  at  such  a  time  is  most  honorable  to  our 
country  and  to  you.  My  trust  is  that  with  the  progress  of 
your  administration,  your  friends  will  grow  in  strength  and 
numbers,  and  that  the  people  will  see  in  your  future  labors 
new  titles  to  praise  and  confidence.  You  have  my  cordial 
wishes  for  your  fame  and  happiness,  and  for  the  success  of 
all  your  views  for  the  public  good. 

"  The  publication  of  my  letter  of  the  21st  of  September, 
has  not  had  the  effect  which  malice  expected  and  intended ; 
and  it  is  not  improbable  that  it  has  contributed  to  produce  a 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  235 

result  directly  the  reverse  of  its  obvious  purpose.  Such  an 
incident,  however,  is  injurious  to  the  character  of  our  coun 
try,  but  it  will,  doubtless,  inspire  at  home  such  a  distrust  of 
the  honor  of  members  of  Congress,  who  could  condescend  to 
so  low  and  malignant  a  fraud,  as  to  prevent  a  repeti 
tion  of  it. 

"  My  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State  will  announce  to 
you  the  change  which  has  taken  place  here  on  the  subject  of 
the  orders  in  council.  I  venture  to  hope  that  this  measure 
will  open  the  way  to  reconcilement  between  this  country 
and  America  without  any  disparagement  of  our  interests  or 
our  honor.  I  have  not  time  (as  the  messenger  leaves  town 
in  the  morning,  and  it  is  now  late  at  night)  to  trouble  you 
with  a  detailed  statement  of  my  notions  on  this  subject — 
but  I  will  presume  upon  your  indulgence  for  a  few  words 
upon  it. 

"  The  change  does  undoubtedly  produce  a  great  effect  in 
a  commercial  view,  and  removes  many  of  the  most  disgust 
ing  features  of  that  system  of  violence  and  monopoly  against 
which  our  efforts  have  been  justly  directed.  The  orders  of 
November  were  in  execution  of  a  sordid  scheme  of  com 
mercial  and  fiscal  advantage,  to  which  America  was  to  be 
sacrificed.  They  were  not  more  atrocious  than  mean.  The 
trade  of  the  world  was  to  be  forced  through  British  ports, 
and  to  pay  British  imposts.  As  a  belligerent  instrument, 
the  orders  were  nothing.  They  were  a  trick  of  trade — a 
huckstering  contrivance  to  enrich  Great  Britain,  and  drive 
other  nations  from,  the  seas.  The  new  system  has  a  better 
air.  Commerce  is  no  longer  to  be  forced  through  this  coun 
try.  We  may  go  direct  to  Kussia,  and  to  all  other  coun 
tries,  except  to  France  and  Holland,  and  the  kingdom  of 
Italy  and  their  colonies.  The  duty  system  is  at  an  end. 
We  may  carry,  as  heretofore,  enemy  productions.  The  pro 
vision  about  certificates  of  origin  is  repealed.  That  about 
prize  ships  is  repealed  also.  What  remains  of  the  old  mea- 


236  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

sure  is  of  a  belligerent  character,  and  is  to  be  strictly  ex 
ecuted  as  such.  No  licenses  are  to  be  granted  even  to  Brit 
ish  merchants  to  trade  to  Holland  or  France. 

"  There  can  be  no  question  that  this  change  gives  us  all 
the  immediate  benefits  which  could  have  arisen  out  of  the 
acceptance  of  our  overture  of  last  year.  It  does  not,  in 
deed,  give  us  the  same  claim  to  demand  from  France  the  re 
call  of  her  edicts  :  but,  in  every  other  respect,  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  it  is  not  more  convenient.  If  that  over 
ture  had  been  received,  a  difficulty  would  have  occurred  as 
to  the  mode  of  making  it  effectual,  as  mentioned  in  my  pri 
vate  letter  of  the  23d  of  January.  And  if  we  had  agreed, 
either  formally  or  by  mere  understanding,  to  Mr.  Canning's 
suggestion,  mentioned  in  the  same  letter,  the  substance  of 
the  thing  would  have  approached  very  nearly  to  what  has 
since  been  done.  But,  at  any  rate,  the  manner  of  the  trans 
action  is  open  to  negotiation,  and  the  intimation  to  that  ef 
fect  which  has  been  made  to  me,  may  be  an  inducement  to 
resume  a  friendly  attitude  towards  Great  Britain,  and  to 
put  the  sincerity  of  that  intimation  to  the  test. 

"  For  the  gain  actually  obtained,  we  may  pay  no  price. 
We  give  no  pledge  of  any  sort,  and  are  not  bound  to  take 
any  step  whatever.  The  embargo  is  already  repealed  after 
the  end  of  the  approaching  session  of  Congress.  The  non- 
intercourse  law  will  expire  at  the  same  time.  If  neither 
should  be  continued  at  the  approaching  session,  negotiation 
may  be  tried  for  obtaining  what  is  yet  to  be  desired,  and, 
that  failing,  our  future  measures  are  in  our  own  power. 

"  I  am  not  sure  that  we  have  not  got  rid  of  the  most 
obnoxious  portion  of  the  British  orders  in  the  most  acceptable 
way.  To  what  is  left,  it  is  impossible  that  either  the  gov 
ernment  or  the  people  of  this  country  can  be  much  attached. 
Having  obtained  gratuitously  the  present  concessions,  we  are 
warranted  in  hoping  that  the  rest,  diminished  in  value,  flat 
tering  no  prejudices,  addressing  itself  to  no  peculiar  interests, 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  237 

and  viewed  with  indifference  by  all,  will  be  easily  abandoned. 
In  the  mean  time  our  peace  is  preserved,  and  our  industry 
revived.  France  can  have  no  cause  of  quarrel,  nor  we  any 
inducement  to  seek  a  quarrel  with  her.  The  United  States  are 
no  parties  to  the  recent  British  measure  as  a  measure  of  pres 
sure  and  coercion  upon  France.  We  may  trade  in  consequence 
of  it,  and  endeavor  to  obtain  further  concessions,  without  the 
hazard  of  war  with  either  party;  while  what  has  already  been 
conceded  saves  our  honor  and  greatly  improves  our  situation. 
Our  overture  of  last  summer,  if  accepted,  must  have  produced 
war  with  France,  unless  France  had  retracted  her  decrees, 
which  was  greatly  to  be  doubted.  The  recent  British  mea 
sure,  not  being  the  result  of  an  arrangement  with  America, 
will  not  have  that  tendency.  For  my  own  part,  I  have 
always  believed  that  a  war  with  France,  if  it  could  be  avoided, 
was  the  idlest  thing  we  could  do.  We  may  talk  of  "  un 
furling  the  republican  banner  against  France  " — but,  when 
we  had  unfurled  our  banner,  there  would  be  an  end  of  our 
exploits.  This  is  precisely  such  a  flourish  as  might  be  ex 
pected  from  a  heavy  intellect  wandering  from  its  ordinary 
track.  It  is  not  remembered  that  if  we  go  to  war  with 
France,  we  shall  be  shut  out  from  the  continent  of  Europe, 
without  knowing  where  it  would  cease  to  repel  us.  It  is  not 
remembered  that  in  a  war  with  France  we  might  suffer,  but 
could  not  act — that  we  should  be  an  humble  ally  without 
hope  of  honor,  and  a  feeble  enemy  without  a  chance  of  victory. 
It  appears  to  me  that  the  world  would  stand  amazed  if  we, 
a  commercial  nation,  whose  interests  are  incompatible  with 
war,  should,  upon  the  instigation  of  our  passions,  strut  into 
the  lists  with  gigantic  France,  with  a  metaphor  in  our  mouths, 
but  with  no  means  of  annoyance  in  our  hands,  and  professing 
to  be  the  champions  of  commerce,  do  just  enough  to  provoke 
its  destruction  and  make  ourselves  ridiculous. 

"  Our  friends  in  this  country  are  all  of  opinion  that  we 
should  take  in  good  part  the  new  order  in  council,  and,  suf- 


238  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINRNEY. 

fering  our  restrictive  laws  to  expire,  rely  upon  friendly  nego 
tiation  and  a  change  of  policy  in  this  government,  for  the 
further  success  of  our  wishes.  I  can  assure  you  with  confi 
dence,  that  they  would  be  greatly  disappointed  and  grieved 
jif  we  should  be  found  to  take  any  other  course.  Our  triumph 
is  already  considered  as  a  signal  one  by  every  body.  The 
pretexts  with  which  ministers  would  conceal  their  motives 
for  a  relinquishment  of  all  which  they  prized  in  their  system, 
are  seen  through ;  and  it  is  universally  viewed  as  a  concession 
to  America.  Our  honor  is  now  safe,  and  by  managment  we 
may  probably  gain  every  thing  we  have  in  view.  A  change 
of  ministers  is  not  unlikely,  and  if  a  change  happens,  it 
will  be  favorable  to  us.  Every  thing  conspires  to  recommend 
moderation. 

"  I  need  not,  I  am  sure,  make  any  apology  for  myself, 
even  although  you  should  think  that  less  has  been  obtained 
here  than  ought  to  have  been  obtained.  I  have  endeavored 
to  do  the  best  with  the  means  put  at  my  disposal,  and  I  have 
avoided  committing  my  government.  I  am  persuaded  that 
all  that  was  practicable  has  been  accomplished,  and  I  have 
a  strong  confidence  that,  used  and  followed  up  as  your  wisdom 
and  that  of  the  legislature  will  direct,  the  result  will  be 
good." 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   MR.    MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.)  LONDON,  August  l$tk,  1809. 

"DEAR  SIR  :• — I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  kind 
letter  of  the  21st  of  April,  and  now  send  the  last  edition  of 
War  in  Disguise  as  you  request.  As  we  are  turning  our  at 
tention  to  wool,  I  have  added  a  tract  lately  published  here  on 
the  merino  and  Anglo-merino  sheep,  which  may  be  of  use. 
I  trust  that  we  shall  continue  to  cultivate  such  manufactures 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  239 

as  suit  our  circumstances.  Cottons  now  and  woollens  here 
after  must  flourish  among  us. 

"  American  newspapers  have  been  received  here,  showing 
that  the  disavowal  of  Mr.  Erskine's  arrangement  has  excited 
much  ferment  in  the  United  States.  I  cannot  subdue  my 
first  regret  that  it  was  found  to  be  necessary,  at  the  last 
regular  session  of  Congress,  to  falter  in  the  course  we  were 
pursuing,  and  to  give  signs  of  inability  to  persevere  in  a  sys 
tem  which  was  on  the  point  of  accomplishing  all  its  purposes. 
That  it  ivas  found  to  be  necessary,  I  have  no  doubt ;  but  I 
have  great  doubts  whether,  if  it  had  fortunately  been  other 
wise,  we  should  have  had  any  disavowals.  It  is  to  be  hoped, 
however,  that  every  thing  will  yet  turn  out  well.  That  you 
will  do  all  that  can  be  done  at  this  perilous  moment  for  the 
honor  and  advantage  of  our  country,  I  am  sure. 

"  I  congratulate  you  heartily  on  the  abundant  proofs  of 
public  confidence  which  have  marked  the  commencement  of 
your  administration.  I  venture  to  prophesy  that  they  will 
multiply  as  you  advance,  and  that  your  administration  will, 
in  its  maturity,  be  identified  in  the  opinions  of  all  men; 
with  the  strength  and  character  and  prosperity  of  the 
state. 

"  You  will  see  from  the  English  Journals  that  the  British 
army  in  Spain  has  fought  gallantly.  They  make  more  of 
this  affair  here  than  perhaps  it  deserves. 

"  The  French  account  will  not  exactly  agree  with  the 
exulting  inferences  drawn  by  the  people  of  England  from 
Sir  Arthur  Wellesley's  dispatch,  which  indeed  leaves  a  great 
deal  to  inference. 

"It  is  clear  that  the  allied  army  greatly  outnumbered 
the  French — that  it  was  advantageously  posted — that  if  the 
Spaniards  (forming  the  right  wing  to  the  amount  of  upwards 
of  40,000  men)  were  not  actively  engaged,  they  must  have  oc 
cupied  or  kept  in  check  an  adequate  number  of  the  French, 
or  have  been  in  a  situation  to  turn  the  left  flank  of  the 


240 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKtfEY. 


French — that  on  the  first  of  these  suppositions  the  British 
(on  the  left)  could  not  have  been  attacked  (as  is  here  uni 
versally  supposed)  by  the  whole  French  force — that  on  the 
second  supposition,  it  is  quite  unaccountable  that  the  French 
were  not  turned,  taken  in  rear,  and  utterly  exterminated. 

"  This  splendid  victory,  after  all,  amounts  to  no  more 
than  a  repulse  by  nearly  70,000  men,  enjoying  every  advan 
tage  of  position,  of  between  40  and  50,000.  The  loss  of  the 
British  is  understood  to  have  been  tremendous.  What  the 
Spanish  loss  was  is  not  known,  but  it  was  no  doubt  consider 
able.  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  admits  that  the  French  retired 
in  the  most  regular  order,  and  it  is  not  pretended  that  they 
were  pursued  or  molested  in  their  retreat. 

"  We  have  no  data  to  enable  us  to  judge  of  the  probable 
result  of  the  further  projected  operations  of  the  British  ex 
pedition.  It  will  depend  of  course  on  the  relative  strength 
of  its  opponents,  which  cannot  be  otherwise  than  great. 

"I  shall  be  greatly  deceived  if  France  relaxes  at  this 
time  from  her  decree  against  neutral  rights.  I  should  rather 
have  expected  additional  rigor  if  General  Armstrong  had  not 
given  me  reason  to  hope  better  things.  The  maritime  arron- 
dissement,  now  so  near  its  completion,  will  furnish  new  induce 
ments  to  perseverance  in  the  anti-commercial  system. 

"  It  appears  from  the  newspapers,  that  Mr.  Adams  has 
been  appointed  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  St.  Petersburgh. 
I  rejoice  at  this  appointment,  for  many  reasons." 


MB.  PINKNEY   TO  MB.   MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.)  LONDON,  Dec.  10 th,  1809. 

"  DEAB  SIB  : — I  see  with  great  pleasure  the  ground  taken 
by  the  Secretary  of  State  in  his  correspondence  with  Mr. 
Jackson,  connected  with  the  probability  that  our  people  are 
recovering  from  recent  delusion,  and  will  hereafter  be  disposed 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  241 

to  support  with  zeal  and  steadiness  the  efforts  of  their 
government  to  maintain  their  honor  and  character.  Jack 
son's  course  is  an  extraordinary  one,  and  his  manner  is  little 
better. 

"  The  British  government  has  acted  for  some  time  upon 
an  opinion,  that  its  partisans  in  America  were  too  numerous 
and  strong  to  admit  of  our  persevering  in  any  system  of  re 
pulsion  to  British  injustice  ;  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
appearances  countenanced  this  humiliating  and  pernicious 
opinion,  which  has  been  entertained  by  our  friends.  My 
own  confidence  in  the  American  people  was  great ;  but  it 
was  shaken,  nevertheless.  I  am  reassured,  however,  by  pre 
sent  symptoms,  and  give  myself  up  once  more  to  hope. 
The  prospect  of  returning  virtue  is  cheering  ;  and  I  trust  it 
is  not  in  danger  of  being  obscured  and  deformed  by  the  re 
currence  of  those  detestable  scenes  which  only  reduced  our 
patriotism  to  a  problem. 

"  The  new  ministry  (if  the  late  changes  entitle  it  to  be 
so  called)  is  at  least  as  likely  as  the  last  to  presume  upon 
our  divisions.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  it  was  impossible  to 
form  a  cabinet  more  unfriendly  to  us,  more  effectually  steeped 
and  dyed  in  all  those  bad  principles  which  have  harassed  and 
insulted  us.  I  continue  to  believe  that,  as  it  is  now  consti 
tuted,  or  even  with  any  modifications  of  which  it  is  suscep 
tible,  it  cannot  last ;  and  that  it  will  not  choose  to  hazard 
much  in  maintaining  against  the  United  States  the  late 
maritime  innovations. 

"  The  people  of  England  are  rather  better  disposed  than 
heretofore  to  accommodate  with  us.  They  seem  to  have 
awaked  from  the  flattering  dreams  by  which  their  understand 
ings  have  been  so  long  abused.  Disappointment  and  disas 
ter  have  dissipated  the  brilliant  expectations  of  undefined 
prosperity  which  had  dazzled  them  into  moral  blindness,  and 
had  cheated  them  of  their  discretion  as  well  as  of  their  sense 
of  justice.  In  this  state  of  things  America  naturally  resumes 
16 


242  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

her  importance,  and  her  rights  become  again  intelligible. 
Lost  as  we  were  to  the  view  of  Englishmen  during  an  over 
powering  blaze  of  imaginary  glory  and  commercial  grandeur, 
we  are  once  more  visible  in  the  sober  light  to  which  facts 
have  tempered  and  reduced  the  glare  of  fiction.  The  use  of 
this  opportunity  depends  upon  ourselves,  and  doubtless  we 
shall  use  it  as  we  ought. 

"  It  is,  after  all,  perhaps  to  be  doubted  whether  any  thing 
but  a  general  peace  (which  if  we  may  judge  from  the  past, 
it  is  not  unlikely  France  will  soon  propose)  can  remove  all 
dilemma  from  our  situation.  More  wisdom  and  virtue  than 
it  would  be  quite  reasonable  to  expect,  must  be  found  in  the 
councils  of  the  two  great  belligerent  parties,  before  the  war 
in  which  they  are  now  engaged  can  become  harmless  to  our 
rights.  Even  if  England  should  recall  (and  I  am  convinced 
she  could  have  been,  and  yet  can  be,  compelled  to  recall) 
her  foolish  orders  in  council,  her  maritime  pretensions  will 
still  be  exuberant,  and  many  of  her  practices  most  oppres 
sive.  From  France  we  have  only  to  look  for  what  hostility 
to  England  may  suggest.  Justice  and  enlightened  policy 
are  out  of  the  question  on  both  sides.  Upon  France,  I  fear, 
we  have  no  means  of  acting  with  effect.  Her  ruler  sets  our 
ordinary  means  at  defiance.  We  cannot  alarm  him  for  his 
colonies,  his  trade,  his  manufactures,  his  revenue.  He  would 
not  probably  be  moved  by  our  attempts  to  do  so,  even  if 
they  were  directed  exclusively  against  himself.  He  is  less 
likely  to  be  so  moved  while  they  comprehend  his  enemy.  A 
war  with  France,  I  shall  always  contend,  would  not  help  our 
case.  It  would  aggravate  our  embarrassments  in  all  respects. 
Our  interests  would  be  struck  to  the  heart  by  it.  For  our 
honor  it  could  do  nothing.  The  territory  of  this  mighty 
power  is  absolutely  invulnerable  ;  and  there  is  no  mode  in 
which  we  could  make  her  feel  either  physical  or  moral  coer 
cion.  We  might  as  well  declare  war  against  the  inhabitants 
of  the  moon  or  of  the  Oeorgium  Sidus.  When  we  had  pro- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  243 

duced  the  entire  exclusion  of  our  trade  from  the  whole  of 
continental  Europe,  and  increased  its  hazards  every  where, 
what  else  could  we  hope  to  achieve  by  gallantry,  or  win  by 
stratagem  ?  Great  Britain  would  go  smuggling  on  as  usual; 
but  we  could  neither  fight  nor  smuggle.  We  should  tire  of 
so  absurd  a  contest  long  before  it  would  end  (who  shall  say 
when  it  should  end  ?)  and  we  should  come  out  of  it,  after 
wondering  how  we  got  into  it,  with  our  manufactures  anni 
hilated  by  British  competition,  our  commerce  crippled  by  an 
enemy  and  smothered  by  a  friend,  our  spirit  debased  into 
listlessness,  and  our  character  deeply  injured.  I  beg  your 
pardon  for  recurring  to  this  topic,  upon  which  I  will  not 
fatigue  you  with  another  word,  lest  I  should  persecute  you 
with  many. 

"  The  ministry  are  certainly  endeavoring  to  gain  strength 
by  some  changes.  It  is  said  that  Lord  Wellesley  is  trying 
to  bring  Mr.  Canning  back  to  the  cabinet  ;  and  if  so,  I  see 
no  reason  why  he  should  not  succeed.  One  statement  is  that 
Mr.  Canning  is  to  go  to  the  Admiralty — another,  that  he  is 
to  return  to  the  Foreign  Department,  that  Lord  Wellesley 
is  to  take  the  Treasury,  and  Mr.  Percival  to  relapse  into  a 
mere  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  It  is  added  that  Lord 
Cambden  (President  of  the  Council),  and  Lord  Westmore 
land  (Privy  Seal),  are  to  go  out. 

"  If  Mr.  Canning  should  not  join  his  old  colleagues  before 
the  meeting  of  Parliament,  he  will  probably  soon  fall  into 
the  ranks  of  opposition,  where  he  will  be  formidable.  There 
will  scarcely  be  any  scruple  in  receiving  him.  If  he  should 
join  his  old  colleagues,  they  will  not  gain  much  by  him. 
As  a  debater  in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  would  be  useful 
to  them ;  but  his  reputation  is  not  at  this  moment  in  the 
best  possible  plight,  and  his  weight  and  connections  are  al 
most  nothing.  I  am  not  sure  that  they  would  not  lose  by 
him  more  than  they  could  gain. 

"  If  Lord  Grenville  and  Lord  Grey*  should  be  recalled  to 


244  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

power,  Lord  Holland  would  be  likely  to  have  the  station 
of  Foreign  Secretary  (Lord  Grey  preferring,  as  is  said,  the 
Admiralty). 

"  I  believe  that  I  have  not  mentioned  to  you  that  Mr. 
G.  H.  Kose  was  to  have  been  the  special  envoy  to  our  coun 
try,  if  Mr.  Erskine's  arrangement  had  not  been  disavowed. 
I  am  bound  to  say,  that  a  worse  choice  could  not  have  been 
made.  Since  his  return  to  England,  he  has,  I  know,  mis 
represented  and  traduced  us  with  an  industry  that  is  abso 
lutely  astonishing,  notwithstanding  the  cant  of  friendship 
and  respect  with  which  he  overwhelms  the  few  Americans 
who  see  him." 


ME.    PINKNEY    TO    MR.  MADISON. 
("PRIVATE.)  LONDON,  August  ISth,  1810. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — I  return  you  my  sincere  thanks  for  your 
letter  of  the  23d  of  May.  Nothing  could  have  been  more 
acceptable  than  the  approbation  which  you  are  so  good  as 
to  express  of  my  note  to  Lord  Wellesley  on  Jackson's  af 
fairs.  I  wish  I  had  been  more  successful  in  my  endeavors 
to  obtain  an  unexceptionable  answer  to  it.  You  need  not 
be  told  that  the  actual  reply  wras,  as  to  plan  and  terms,  wide 
of  the  expectations  which  I  had  formed  of  it.  It  was,  un 
fortunately,  delayed  until  first  views  and  feelings  became 
weak  of  themselves.  The  support  which  Jackson  received 
in  America  was  admirably  calculated  to  produce  other  views 
and  feelings,  not  only  by  its  direct  influence  on  Lord  Wel 
lesley  and  his  colleagues,  but  by  the  influence  which  they 
could  not  but  know  it  had  on  the  British  nation  and  the 
Parliament.  The  extravagant  conduct  of  France  had  the 
same  pernicious  tendency ;  and  the  appearances  in  Congress, 
with  reference  to  our  future  attitude  on  the  subject  of  the 
atrocious  wrongs  inflicted  upon  us  by  France  and  England, 
could  scarcely  be  without  their  effect.  It  is  not  to  be 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  245 

doubted  that,  with  a  strong  desire  in  the  outset  to  act  a 
very  conciliatory  part,  the  British  government  was  thus 
gradually  prepared  to  introduce  into  the  proceeding  what 
would  not  otherwise  have  found  a  place  in  it,  and  to  omit 
what  it  ought  to  have  contained.  The  subject  appeared  to 
it  every  day  in  a  new  light,  shed  upon  it  from  France  and 
the  United  States  ;  and  a  corresponding  change  naturally 
enough  took  place  in  the  scarcely  remembered  estimates 
which  had  at  first  been  made  of  the  proper  mode  of  manag 
ing  it.  The  change  in  Lord  Wellesley's  notion  upon  it, 
between  our  first  interview  and  the  date  of  his  answer,  had, 
without  doubt,  his  full  approbation.  For,  the  account  of 
this  interview,  as  given  in  my  private  letter  to  Mr.  Smith, 
of  the  4th  of  January,  is  so  far  from  exaggerating  Lord 
Wellesley's  reception  of  what  I  said  of  him,  that  it  is  much 
below  it.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  he  had  hardly  read  the 
correspondence,  and  had  evidently  thought  very  little  upon 
it.  For  which  reason,  and  because  he  spoke  for  himself 
only,  and  with  less  care  than  he  would,  perhaps,  have  used 
if  he  had  considered  that  he  was  speaking  officially,  I  am 
glad  that  you  declined  laying  my  private  letter  before  Con 
gress.  The  publication  of  it,  which  must  necessarily  have 
followed,  would  have  produced  serious  embarrassment. 

"  Do  you  not  think  that,  in  some  respects,  Lord  Wel 
lesley's  answer  to  my  note  had  not  been  exactly  appreciated 
in  America?  I  confess  to  you  that  this  is  my  opinion. 
That  the  paper  is  a  very  bad  one  is  perfectly  clear  ;  but  it 
is  not  so  bad  in  intention  as  it  is  in  reality,  nor  quite  so  bad 
in  reality  as  it  is  commonly  supposed  to  be. 

"  It  is  the  production  of  an  indolent  man,  making  a  great 
effort  to  reconcile  things  almost  incongruous,  and  just  show 
ing  his  wish  without  executing  it.  Lord  Wellesley  wished 
to  be  extremely  civil  to  the  American  government ;  but  he 
was,  at  the  same  time,  to  be  very  stately — to  manage  Jack 
son's  situation — and  to  intimate  disapprobation  of  the  sus- 


246  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNET. 

pension  of  his  functions.  He  was  stately,  not  so  much  from 
design  as  because  he  cannot  be  otherwise.  In  managing 
Jackson's  situation  he  must  have  gone  beyond  his  original 
intention,  and  certainly  beyond  any  of  which  I  was  aware 
before  I  received  his  answer.  If  the  answer  had  been 
promptly  written,  I  have  no  belief  that  he  would  have  af 
fected  to  praise  Jackson's  c  ability,  zeal,  and  integrity/  or 
that  he  would  have  said  any  thing  about  his  Majesty  not 
having  c  marked  his  conduct  with  any  expression  of  his  dis 
pleasure/  He  would  have  been  content  to  forbear  to  cen 
sure  him,  and  that  I  always  took  for  granted  he  would  do. 

"  For  Jackson,  personally,  Lord  Wellesley  cares  nothing. 
In  his  several  conferences  with  me,  he  never  vindicated  him, 
and  he  certainly  did  not  mean  in  his  letter  to  undertake 
his  defence.  It  is  impossible  that  he  should  not  have  (/  am 
indeed  sure  that  he  has)  a  mean  opinion  of  that  most  clumsy 
and  ill-conditioned  minister.  His  idea  always  appeared  to 
be  that  he  was  wrong  in  pressing  at  all  the  topic  which  gave 
offence  ;  but  that  he  acted  upon  good  motives,  and  that  his 
government  could  not  with  honor,  or  without  injury  to  the 
diplomatic  service  generally,  disgrace  him.  This  is  expli 
citly  stated  in  my  private  letter  of  the  4th  of  January  to 
Mr.  Smith.  There  is  great  difference,  undoubtedly,  between 
that  idea  and  the  one  upon  which  Lord  Wellesley  appears 
finally  to  have  acted.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that 
the  praise  betowed  upon  Jackson  is  very  meagre,  and  that  it 
ascribes  to  him  no  qualities  in  any  degree  inconsistent  with 
the  charge  of  gross  indecency  and  intolerable  petulance  pre 
ferred  against  him  in  my  note.  He  might  be  honest,  zealous, 
able,  and  yet  be  indiscreet,  ill-tempered,  suspicious,  arrogant 
and  ill-mannered.  It  is  to  be  observed,  too,  this  has  no  ref 
erence  whatever  to  the  actual  case,  and  that,  when  the  an 
swer  speaks  of  the  offence  imputed  to  Jackson  by  the  Ame 
rican  government,  it  does  not  say  that  he  gave  no  such  cause 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  247 

of  offence,  but  simply  relies  on  his  repeated  asseverations 
that  he  did  not  mean  to  offend. 

"  If  the  answer  had  been  promptly  written,  I  am  per 
suaded  that  another  feature  which  now  distinguishes  it  would 
have  been  otherwise.  It  would  not  have  contained  any  com 
plaint  against  the  course  adopted  by  the  American  govern 
ment  in  putting  an  end  to  official  communication  with  Jack 
son.  That  Lord  Wellesley  thought  that  course  objectionable 
from  the  first  appears  in  my  private  letter  above-mentioned 
to  Mr.  Smith.  But  he  did  not  urge  his  objections  to  it  in 
such  a  way,  at  our  first  interview  or  afterwards,  as  to  induce 
me  to  suppose  that  he  would  except  to  that  course  in  his 
written  answer.  He  said  in  the  outset  that  he  considered  it 
a  damnum  to  the  British  government,  and  I  know  that  he 
was  not  disposed  to  acknowledge  the  regularity  of  it.  There 
was  evidently  no  necessity,  if  he  did  not  approve  the  course, 
to  say  any  thing  about  it  ;  and  in  our  conversations  I  always 
assumed  that  it  was  not  only  unnecessary  but  wholly  inad 
missible  to  mention  it  officially  for  any  other  purpose  than 
that  of  approving  it. 

"  After  all,  however,  what  he  has  said  upon  this  point 
(idle  and  ill-judged  as  it  is)  is  the  mere  statement  of  the 
opinion  of  the  British  government,  that  another  course  would 
have  been  more  in  rule  than  ours.  It  amounts  to  this,  then, 
that  we  have  opinion  against  opinion  and  practice  ;  and  that 
our  practice  has  been  acquiesced  in. 

"As  to  that  part  of  the  answer  which  speaks  of  a  charge 
d'affaires,  it  must  now  be  repented  of  here,  especially  by 
Lord  Wellesley,  if  it  was  really  intended  as  a  threat  of 
future  inequality  in  the  diplomatic  establishments  of  the  two 
countries,  or  even  to  wear  that  appearance.  Lord  WeUesley's 
letter  to  me  of  the  22d  ult.  abandons  that  threat,  and  makes 
it  consequently  much  worse  than  nothing.  His  explanations 
to  me  on  that  head  (not  official)  have  lately  been,  that,  when 
he  wrote  his  answer,  he  thought  there  was  some  person  in 


248  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

America  to  whom  Jackson  could  have  immediately  delivered 
his  charge,  and  if  he  had  not  heen  under  that  impression,  he 
should  not  probably  have  spoken  in  his  answer  of  a  charge 
d'affaires,  and  should  have  sent  out  a  minister  plenipoten 
tiary  in  the  first  instance.  I  know  not  what  stress  ought  to 
be  laid  upon  those  private  and  ex  post  facto  suggestions  ;  but 
I  am  entirely  convinced  that  there  was  no  thought  of  con 
tinuing  a  charge  d'affaires  at  Washington  for  more  than  a 
short  time.  Neither  their  pride  nor  their  interests,  nor  the 
scantiness  of  their  present  diplomatic  patronage  would  per 
mit  it.  That  Lord  Wellesley  has  long  been  looking  out  in 
his  dilatory  ivay  for  a  suitable  character  (a  man  of  rank) 
to  send  as  minister  plenipotentiary  to  the  United  States,  I 
have  the  best  reason  to  be  assured.  That  the  appointment 
has  not  yet  taken  place,  is  no  proof  at  all  that  it  has  not 
been  intended.  Those  who  think  they  understand  Lord 
Wellesley  best,  represent  him  as  disinclined  to  business — and 
it  is  certain  that  I  have  found  him  upon  every  occasion 
given  to  procrastination  beyond  all  example.  The  business 
of  the  Chesapeake  is  a  striking  instance.  Nothing  could  be 
fairer  than  his  various  conversations  on  that  case.  He  set 
tles  it  with  me  verbally  over  and  over  again.  He  promises 
his  written  overture  in  a  few  days — and  I  hear  no  more  of 
the  matter.  There  may  be  cunning  in  all  this,  but  it  is  not 
such  cunning  as  I  should  expect  from  Lord  Wellesley. 

"  In  the  affair  of  the  blockades,  it  is  evident  that  the 
delay  arises  from  the  cabinet,  alarmed  at  every  thing  which 
touches  the  subject  of  blockades,  and  that  abominable  scheme 
of  monopoly  called  the  Orders  in  Council.  Yet  it  is  an  un 
questionable  fact  that  they  have  suffered,  and  are  suffering 
severely  under  the  iniquitous  restrictions  which  they  and 
France  have  imposed  upon  the  world. 

"  I  mean  to  wait  a  little  longer  for  Lord  Wellesley's  reply 
to  my  note  of  the  30th  of  April.  If  it  is  not  soon  received, 
I  hope  I  shall  not  be  thought  indiscreet  if  I  present  a  strong 


LIFE   OP   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  249 

remonstrance  upon  it,  and  if  I  take  occasion  in  it  to  advert 
to  the  affair  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  to  expose  what  has  oc 
curred  in  that  affair  between  Lord  Wellesley  and  me. 

"  I  have  a  letter  from  General  Armstrong  of  the  24th  of 
last  month.  He  expects  no  change  in  the  measures  of  the 
French  government  with  regard  to  the  United  States.  I 
cannot,  however,  refrain  from  hoping  that  we  shall  have  no 
war  with  that  government.  We  have  a  sufficient  cause  for 
war  against  both  France  and  England — an  equal  cause 
against  both  in  point  of  justice,  even  if  we  take  into  the  ac 
count  the  recent  violences  of  the  former.  But  looking  to 
expediency,  which  should  never  be  lost  sight  of,  I  am  not 
aware  of  any  considerations  that  should  induce  us  in  actual 
circumstances  to  embark  in  a  war  with  France.  I  have  so 
often  troubled  you  on  this  topic,  that  I  will  not  venture  to 
stir  it  again." 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   LORD   WELLESLEY. 

"GREAT  CUMBERLAND  PLACE,  Nov.  3d,  1810. 

"  MY  LORD  : — In  my  note  of  the  25th  of  August,  I  had 
the  honor  to  state  to  your  lordship,  that  I  had  received  from 
the  minister  plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States,  at  Paris, 
a  letter  dated  the  6th  of  that  month,  in  which  he  informed 
me,  that  he  had  received  from  the  French  government  a 
written  and  official  notice,  that  it  had  revoked  the  decrees 
of  Berlin  and  Milan,  and  that  after  the  first  of  November, 
those  decrees  would  cease  to  have  any  effect  ;  and  I  ex 
pressed  my  confidence,  that  the  revocation  of  the  British 
orders  in  council,  of  January  and  November,  1807,  and 
April,  1809,  and  of  all  other  orders  dependent  upon,  analo 
gous  to,  or  in  execution  of  them,  would  follow  of  course. 

"  Your  lordship's  reply,  of  the  31st  of  August,  to  that 
note,  repeated  a  declaration  of  the  British  minister  in  Ame- 


250  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

rica,  made,  as  it  appears,  to  the  government  of  the  United 
States  in  February,  1808,  of  '  his  Majesty's  earnest  desire  to 
see  the  commerce  of  the  world  restored  to  that  freedom  which 
is  necessary  for  its  prosperity,  and  his  readiness  to  abandon 
the  system  which  had  been  forced  upon  him,  whenever  the 
enemy  should  retract  the  principles  which  had  rendered  it 
necessary  ;'  and  added  an  official  assurance,  that,  c  whenever 
the  repeal  of  the  French  decrees  should  have  actually  taken 
effect,  and  the  commerce  of  neutral  nations  should  have  been 
restored  to  the  condition  in  which  it  stood  previously  to  the 
promulgation  of  those  decrees,  his  Majesty  would  feel  the 
highest  satisfaction  in  relinquishing  a  system  which  the  con 
duct  of  the  enemy  compelled  him  to  adopt/ 

"  Without  departing,  in  any  degree,  from  my  first  opin 
ion,  that  the  United  States  had  a  right  to  expect,  upon 
every  principle  of  justice,  that  the  prospective  revocation  of 
the  French  decrees  would  be  immediately  followed  by  at 
least  a  like  revocation  of  the  orders  of  England,  I  must  re 
mind  your  lordship,  that  the  day  has  now  passed  when  the 
repeal  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  edicts,  as  communicated  to 
your  lordship  in  the  note  above-mentioDed,  and  published 
to  the  whole  world  by  the  government  of  France,  in  the 
Moniteur  of  the  9th  of  September,  was,  by  the  terms  of  it, 
to  take  effect.  That  it  has  taken  effect,  cannot  be  doubted  ; 
and  it  can  as  little  be  questioned,  that,  according  to  the  re 
peated  pledges  given  by  the  British  government  on  this 
point  (to  say  nothing  of  various  other  powerful  considera 
tions),  the  prompt  relinquishment  of  the  system,  to  which 
your  lordship's  reply  to  my  note  of  the  25th  of  August 
alludes,  is  indispensable. 

"I  need  scarcely  mention  how  important  it  is  to  the 
trade  of  the  United  States,  that  the  government  of  Great 
Britain  should  lose  no  time  in  disclosing  with  frankness  and 
precision  its  intentions  on  this  head.  Intelligence  of  the 
French  repeal  has  reached  America,  and  commercial  expe- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  251 

ditions  have  doubtless  been  founded  upon  it.  It  will  have 
been  taken  for  granted  that  the  British  obstructions  to  those 
expeditions,  having  thus  lost  the  support,  which,  however  in 
sufficient  in  itself,  was  the  only  one  that  could  ever  be 
claimed  for  them,  have  been  withdrawn  ;  and  that  the  seas 
are  once  more  restored  to  the  dominion  of  law  and  justice. 

"  I  persuade  myself  that  this  confidence  will  be  substan 
tially  justified  by  the  event,  and  that  to  the  speedy  recall 
of  such  orders  in  council  as  were  subsequent  in  date  to  the 
decrees  of  France,  will  be  added  the  annulment  of  the  ante 
cedent  order  to  which  my  late  letter  respecting  blockades 
particularly  relates.  But  if,  notwithstanding  the  circum 
stances  which  invite  to  such  a  course,  the  British  govern 
ment  shall  have  determined  not  to  remove  those  obstructions 
with  all  practicable  promptitude,  I  trust  that  my  government 
will  be  apprised,  with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  of  a  deter 
mination  so  unexpected,  and  of  such  vital  concern  to  its 
rights  and  interests  ;  and  that  the  reasons  upon  which  that 
determination  may  have  been  formed,  will  not  be  withheld 
from  it." 


ME.   PINKNEY   TO   MK.   SMITH. 

"LONDON,  Nov.  Uth,  1810. 

"  SIB  : — I  have  finally  determined  not  to  mention  again 
to  Lord  Wellesley  (as  I  thought  of  doing)  the  subject  of  a 
plenipotentiary  successor  to  Mr.  Jackson.  I  think,  upon  re 
flection  (and  shall  act  accordingly),  that  I  ought,  after  what 
has  passed,  to  leave  him,  without  further  inquiry  or  notice 
on  my  part,  to  shape  his  course  upon  it  ;  and  that,  if  an  ap 
pointment  should  not  be  made  as  soon  as  the  king's  health 
(which  would  seem  to  be  improving)  will  permit,  I  ought  at 
once  to  send  in  an  official  note,  announcing  my  resolution  to 
return  to  America,  and  to  leave  some  suitable  person  as  a 
charge  d'affaires. 


252  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

"  My  letter  of  the  23d  of  July  informed  you  that  after 
Lord  Wellesley's  written  assurance  of  the  22d  of  that  month 
(which  was  in  conformity,  as  far  as  it  went,  with  his  as 
surances  in  conversation),  'that  it  was  his  intention  imme 
diately  to  recommend  the  appointment  of  an  envoy  extra 
ordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  from  the  king  to  the 
United  States,'  I  did  not  think  myself  authorized  to  take  the 
step  which  the  instructions  contained  in  your  letter  of  the 
23d  of  May,  in  certain  circumstances,  prescribed. 

"  My  opinion  was,  that  whether  the  prospect  which  then 
existed  of  bringing  to  a  conclusion  the  affair  of  the  Chesa 
peake,  were  taken  into  the  account  or  not,  it  was  my  obvious 
duty  to  remain  at  my  post,  most  irksome  as  it  was  every  day 
becoming,  until  it  should  incontestably  appear  that  those 
assurances  were  not  to  be  relied  upon. 

"  Before  a  sufficient  time  had  elapsed  to  warrant  so  harsh 
a  conclusion,  I  received  from  Lord  Wellesley,  on  the  28th 
of  August,  a  farther  casual  intimation  (reported  to  you  in 
my  letter  of  the  29th  of  the  same  month)  that  his  recom 
mendation  of  a  minister  would,  as  he  believed,  be  made  in 
the  course  of  that  week  or  the  next. 

"  In  the  mean  time  the  repeal,  by  the  government  of 
France,  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees,  had  produced  a 
posture  of  affairs  which,  whatever  might  be  Lord  Wellesley's 
forgetfulness  of  his  own  declarations,  or  the  inattention  of  his 
government  to  what  he  might  advise  in  consequence  of  them, 
rendered  my  stay  in  England  for  two  or  three  months  longer, 
indispensable. 

"  In  fine,  the  effect  of  that  consideration  had  not  ceased 
when  the  illness  of  the  king  made  it  impossible  that  I 
should  depart. 

"  Upon  the  king's  recovery,  I  shall  have  every  motive  for 
bringing  this  matter  to  an  issue,  and  none  for  the  least  hesi 
tation  or  reserve  upon  it.  Several  months  have  been  allowed 


LIFE   OF   "WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  253 

for  the  performance  of  an  act  which  might  have  been  com 
pleted  in  as  many  weeks. 

"  I  shall  have  done  every  thing  in  my  power  on  the  sub 
jects  connected  with  the  revocation  of  the  French  edicts. 
And  the  British  government  will  be  in  a  situation  to  admit 
of  such  proceedings  on  its  own  part  and  on  mine  as  the  occa 
sion  will  require. 

"  From  Lord  Wellesley's  intimation  to  me  on  the  28th 
of  August  (mentioned  above),  it  is  perfectly  clear,  that  he 
had  not  then  executed  the  intention  so  positively  announced 
in  his  note  of  the  22d  of  July.  Five  or  six  weeks  had 
passed,  and  that  which  he  had  both  said  and  written  he 
meant  to  do  immediately,  he  was  not  yet  sure  that  he  meant 
to  do  within  another  fortnight.  The  presumption  seems, 
nevertheless,  to  be  quite  unnatural,  that  Lord  Wellesley  con 
tinued,  up  to  the  commencement  of  the  king's  malady,  to  be 
negligent  of  a  pledge,  which  he  chose  to  rest  not  merely  on 
his  official  but  his  personal  character — a  pledge,  of  which  he 
knew  I  could  neither  question  the  sufficiency  nor  doubt  the 
sincerity,  and  by  which,  as  he  also  knew,  my  conduct  on  an 
extremely  delicate  point  of  duty  was  wholly  determined. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  if  Lord  Wellesley  lias  been  mind 
ful  of  his  pledge,  and  has  recommended  a  minister  in  com 
pliance  with  it,  how  has  it  happened  (how  can  it  have 
happened)  that  this  recommendation  has  not  been  followed 
by  an  appointment. 

"  In  the  midst  of  all  this  doubt,  which  Lord  Wellesley 
might  dissipate  if  he  pleased  by  an  explanation  apparently 
necessary  for  his  own  sake,  there  is,  as  I  believe,  no  uncer 
tainty  as  to  the  course  which,  in  the  actual  state  of  my  in 
structions  (or  on  the  score  of  general  propriety),  I  ought  to 
pursue  ;  especially  as  I  must  infer,  from  your  silence  since  the 
arrival  of  Mr.  Morier  at  Washington  (if  I  had  no  other 
reason  for  that  inference),  that  no  such  communication  was 


254  LIFE   OP   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

made;  either  by  or  through  that  gentleman  to  you,  as  ought 
in  the  judgment  of  the  President  to  have  any  influence  upon 
my  conduct  on  this  occasion." 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   LOED   WELLESLEY. 

"  GREAT  CUMBERLAND  PLACE,  December  10th,  1810. 

"  MY  LORD: — In  compliance  with  the  request  contained 
in  your  note  of  the  6th  instant,  I  proceed  to  recapitulate  in 
this  letter  (with  some  variations  however)  the  statements 
and  remarks  which  I  had  the  honor  to  make  in  our  confer 
ence  of  the  5th,  respecting  the  revocation  of  the  French  de 
crees,  as  connected  with  a  change  of  system  here  on  the  sub 
ject  of  neutral  rights. 

"  Your  lordship  need  not  be  told  that  I  should  have  been 
happy  to  offer,  at  a  much  earlier  moment,  every  explanation 
in  my  power  on  matters  of  such  high  concern  to  the  rights 
and  commerce  of  my  country,  and  the  future  character  of  its 
foreign  relations,  if  I  had  been  made  to  understand  that  ex 
planation  was  desired. 

"  My  written  communications  of  August  and  November 
were  concise,  but  they  were  not  intended  to  be  insufficient. 
They  furnished  evidence  which  I  thought  conclusive,  and  ab 
stained  from  labored  commentary,  because  I  deemed  it  su 
perfluous.  I  had  taken  up  an  opinion,  which  I  abandoned 
reluctantly  and  late,  that  the  British  government  would  be 
eager  to  follow  the  example  of  France  in  recalling,  as  it  had 
professed  to  do  in  promulgating,  that  extraordinary  system 
of  maritime  annoyance,  which,  in  1807,  presented  to  neutral 
trade,  in  almost  all  its  directions,  the  hopeless  alternative  of 
inactivity  or  confiscation  ;  which  considered  it  as  a  subject  to 
be  regulated,  like  the  trade  of  the  United  Kingdoms,  by  the 
statutes  of  the  British  Parliament ;  and  undertook  to  bend 
and  fashion  it  by  every  variety  of  expedient  to  all  the  pur 
poses  and  even  the  caprices  of  Great  Britain.  I  had  no  idea 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   P1NKNEY.  255 

that  the  remnant  of  that  system,  productive  of  no  conceiva 
ble  advantage  to  England,  and  deservedly  odious  for  its  the 
ory  and  destructive  effects,  to  others,  could  survive  the  pub 
lic  declaration  of  France  that  the  edicts  of  Berlin  and  Milan 
were  revoked.  Instructed  at  length,  however,  by  your  lord 
ship's  continued  silence,  and  alarmed  for  the  property  of  my 
fallow  citizens,  now  more  than  ever  exposed  by  an  erroneous 
confidence,  to  the  ruinous  operation  of  the  British  orders,  I 
was  preparing  to  support  my  general  representations  by  de 
tailed  remonstrance,  when  I  received  the  honor  of  your  note 
of  the  4th  instant.  In  the  conference  which  ensued,  I  trou 
bled  your  lordship  with  a  verbal  communication,  of  which 
the  following  is  nearly  the  substance. 

"  The  doubts  which  appear  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
recall  of  the  British  orders  in  council  (  under  which  denomi 
nation  I  include  certain  orders  of  blockade  of  a  kindred  prin 
ciple  and  spirit),  must  refer  to  the  manner,  or  the  terms,  or 
the  practical  effect  of  the  alleged  repeal  of  the  decrees  of 
France. 

"  That  the  manner  of  the  proceeding  is  satisfactory  to 
the  British  government  cannot  be  questioned ;  since  it  is 
precisely  that  in  which  its  own  numerous  orders  for  establish 
ing,  modifying,  or  removing  blockades  and  other  maritime 
obstructions,  are  usually  proclaimed  to  neutral  states  and 
merchants. 

"  The  French  repeal  was  officially  notified  on  the  5th  of 
August,  to  the  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United 
States  at  Paris,  by  the  French  minister  for  foreign  affairs ; 
as  I  had  the  honor  to  inform  your  lordship  in  my  letter  of  the 
25th  of  the  same  month,  which  not  only  gave  the  import, 
but  (as  the  inclosed  copy  will  show),  adopted  the  words  of 
General  Armstrong's  statement  to  me  of  the  tenor  and  effect 
of  that  notice. 

"  On  the  9th  of  August  the  notification  to  General  Arm 
strong  was  published  in  the  Moniteur,  the  official  journal  of 


256  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

the  French  government,  as  the  act  of  that  government  ;  and 
thus  became  a  formal  declaration,  and  a  public  pledge  to  all 
who  had  an  interest  in  the  matter  of  it. 

"  It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  particularize  the  numer 
ous  instances  of  analogous  practice  in  England,  by  which 
this  course  is  countenanced  ;  but  a  recent  example  happens 
to  be  before  me,  and  may  therefore  be  mentioned.  The  par 
tial  recall  or  modification  of  the  English  blockade  of  the 
ports  and  places  of  Spain,  from  Gijon  to  the  French  terri 
tory  (itself  known  to  my  government  only  through  a  circular 
notification  to  me  recited  afterwards  in  the  London  Gazette), 
was  declared  to  the  American  and  other  governments  in  ex 
actly  the  same  mode. 

"  I  think  it  demonstrable  that  the  terms  in  which  the 
French  revocation  was  announced,  are  just  as  free  from  well 
founded  objection  as  the  manner. 

"  Your  lordship's  view  of  them  is  entirely  unknown  to 
me  ;  but  1  am  not  ignorant  that  there  are  those  in  this  coun 
try  who,  professing  to  have  examined  them  with  care,  and 
having  certainly  examined  them  with  jealousy,  maintain  that 
the  revocation  on  the  1st  of  November,  was  made  to  depend 
by  the  obvious  meaning  of  those  terms,  upon  a  condition 
precedent  which  has  not  been  fulfilled,  namely — the  revoca 
tion  by  Great  Britain  of  her  orders  in  council,  including  such 
blockading  orders  as  France  complains  of  as  being  illegal. 

"If  this  were  even  admitted  to  be  so,  I  am  yet  to  learn 
upon  what  grounds  of  justice  the  British  government  could 
decline  to  meet,  by  a  similar  act  on  its  part,  an  advance  thus 
made  to  it  by  its  adversary,  in  the  face  of  the  world,  towards 
a  co-operation  in  the  great  work  of  restoring  the  liberty  of 
the  ocean  ;  so  far,  at  least,  as  respects  the  orders  in  council  of 
1807  and  1809,  and  such  blockades  as  resemble  them.  It 
is  not  necessary,  however,  to  take  this  view  of  the  question  ; 
for  the  French  revocation  turns  on  no  condition  precedent,  is 
absolute,  precise  and  unequivocal. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  257 

a  What  construction  of  the  document  which  declares  that 
revocation  might  he  made  by  determined  suspicion  and  dis 
trust,  I  have  no  wish,  and  am  not  bound  to  inquire.  Such 
interpreters  would  not  be  satisfied  by  any  form  of  words,  and 
would  be  likely  to  draw  the  same  conclusion  from  perfect  ex- 
plicitness  and  studied  obscurity.  It  is  enough  for  me  that 
the  fair  and  natural  and  necessary  import  of  the  paper  af 
fords  no  color  for  the  interpretation  I  am  about  to  examine. 

"  The  French  declaration  ( that  the  decrees  of  Berlin  and 
Milan  Are  JRevoked,  and  that  from  the  first  of  November 
they  will  cease  to  have  any  effect/  is  precision  itself.  But 
they  are  followed  by  these  words  :  'bien  entendu  qu'en 
consequence  de  cette  declaration  les  Anglois  revoqueront 
leurs  arrets  du  conseil,  et  renonceront  aux  nouveaux  prin- 
cipes  de  blocus  qu'ils  ont  voulu  etablir,  ou  bien  que  les  Etats 
Unis,  conformement  a  I'acte  que  vous  venez  communique,  feront 
respecter  leur  droits  par  les  Anglois.' 

"  If  these  words  state  any  condition,  they  state  ttvo,  the 
first  depending  upon  Great  Britain,  the  last  upon  the  United 
States  :  and  as  they  are  put  in  the  disjunctive,  it  would  be 
extravagant  to  hold  that  the  non-performance  of  one  of  them 
is  equivalent  to  the  non-performance  of  both.  I  shall  take 
for  granted,  therefore,  that  the  argument  against  my  con 
struction  of  the  Duke  of  Cadore's  letter  must  be  moulded 
into  a  new  form.  It  must  deal  with  two  conditions  instead 
of  one,  and  considering  them  equally  as  conditions  precedent 
to  be  performed  (disjunctively)  before  the  day  limited  for  the 
operative  commencement  of  the  French  repeal,  must  main 
tain  that  if  neither  of  them  should  be  performed  before  that- 
day,  the  decrees  were  not  to  be  revoked,  and,  consequently, 
that  as  neither  of  them  has  been  so  performed,  the  decrees 
are  still  in  force. 

"  If  this  hypothesis  of  previous  conditions,  thus  reduced 
to  the  only  shape  it  can  assume,  be  proved  to  be  unsound, 
my  construction  is  at  once  established  ;  since  it  is  only  upon 
17 


258  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

that  hypothesis  that  any  doubt  can  be  raised  against  the  ex 
act  and  perspicuous  assurance  that  the  decrees  were  actually 
repealed,  and  that  the  repeal  would  become  effectual  on  the 
1st  of  November.  This  hypothesis  is  proved  to  be  unsound, 
by  the  following  consideration. 

"  It  has  clearly  no  foundation  in  the  phraseology  of  the 
paper,  which  does  not  contain  a  syllable  to  put  any  condition 
before  the  repeal.  The  repeal  is  represented  as  a  step  al 
ready  taken,  to  have  effect  on  a  day  specified.  Certain  con 
sequences  are,  indeed,  declared  to  be  expected  from  this  pro 
ceeding  ;  but  no  day  is  given,  either  expressly  or  by  implica 
tion,  within  which  they  are  to  happen.  It  is  not  said,  '  bien 
entendu  que  les  Anglois  auront  revoque,'  &c.,  but  '  que  les 
Anglois  revoqueront/  &c.,  indefinitely  as  to  time. 

"  The  notion  of  conditions  precedent  is,  therefore,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  perfectly  gratuitous.  But  it  is  also  absurd. 
It  drives  us  to  the  conclusion,  that  a  palpable  and  notorious 
impossibility  Avas  intended  to  be  prescribed  as  a  condition, 
in  a  paper  which  they  who  think  it  was  rneant  to  deceive, 
must  admit  was  meant  to  be  plausible. 

"  It  was  a  palpable  and  notorious  impossibility.,  that  the 
United  States  should,  before  the  1st  of  November,  execute 
any  condition,  no  matter  what  the  nature  of  it,  the  per- 
iormance  of  which  was  to  follow  the  ascertained  failure  of  a 
condition  to  be  executed  by  Great  Britain  at  any  time  be 
fore  the  same  1st  of  November.  That  the  act  expected  from 
the  United  States  was  to  be  consequent  upon  the  failure  of 
the  other,  is  apparent.  It  is  also  apparent,  that  upon  any 
interpretation  which  would  make  the  act  of  Great  Britain  a 
condition  precedent  to  the  French  repeal,  and  consequently 
precedent  to  the  1st  of  November  (when  the  repeal  was,  if 
ever,  to  take  effect),  that  condition  could  not  be  said  to  have 
failed  before  the  whole  period,  from  the  5th  of  August  to  the 
1st  of  November,  had  elapsed.  But  if  Great  Britain  had 
had  the  whole  time,  within  which  to  elect  the  course  which 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNER.  259 

she  would  pursue,  what  opportunity  would  be  left  to  the 
United  States  (equally  bound,  upon  this  idea  of  conditions 
precedent,  to  act  their  part  within  the  same  period),  to  be 
come  acquainted  with  that  election,  and  to  decide  upon  and 
take  their  own  course  in  consequence  ;  to  say  nothing  of  the 
transmission  of  such  intelligence  of  it  to  Europe  as  would  be 
indispensable  to  the  efficacy  of  the  conditional  revocation. 

This  general  view  would  be  sufficient  to  discredit  the  ar 
bitrary  construction  under  consideration.  But  it  will  be 
more  completely  exposed  by  an  explanation  of  the  nature  of 
the  act,  which  the  latter  professes  to  expect  from  the  United 
States,  in  case  Great  Britain  should  omit  to  revoke.  This 
act  is  the  revival  of  the  non-intercourse  law  against  Eng 
land,  France  remaining  exempt  from  it,  as  well  as  from  the 
provisions  of  the  subsequent  law,  commonly  called  the  non- 
intercourse  act.  Now,  if  it  is  too  plain,  upon  the  face  of  the 
last  mentioned  law  (to  which  the  letter  expressly  refers)  to 
escape  the  most  negligent  and  unskilful  observer,  that  this 
revival  could  riot,  by  any  industry  or  chance,  be  accom 
plished  before  the  time  fixed  for  the  cessation  of  the  French 
decrees,  or  even  for  a  considerable  time  afterwards,  it  cer 
tainly  cannot  be  allowable  to  assume,  that  the  revival  was 
required  by  the  letter  (whatever  was  the  object  of  the  writer 
or  his  government)  to  precede  the  cessation.  And  if  this 
was  not  required,  it  is  incontrovertible  that  the  cessation 
would,  by  the  terms  of  the  letter,  take  place  on  the  ap 
pointed  day,  whether  any  of  the  events  disjunctively  speci 
fied  had  intervened  or  not. 

"  The  first  step  towards  a  revival  of  the  non-intercourse 
against  England  would  be  the  proclamation  of  the  Pre 
sident,  that  France  had  so  revoked  or  modified  her  edicts,  as 
that  they  ceased  to  violate  the  neutral  commerce  of  the 
United  States.  But  the  letter  of  Monsieur  Champagny  left 
the  decrees,  as  it  found  them,  up  to  the  first  of  November, 
and,  consequently,  up  to  that  day  it  could  not,  for  any  thing 


260  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

contained  in  that  letter,  be  said  that  the  rights  of  American 
commerce  were  no  longer  infringed  by  them.  A  prospective 
proclamation,  that  they  ivould  cease  to  violate  those  rights, 
might,  perhaps,  be  issued  ;  but  it  could  scarcely  have  any 
substantial  operation,  either  in  favor  of  France  or  to  the 
prejudice  of  England,  until  the  epoch  to  which  it  looked  had 
arrived. 

"Let  it  be  admitted,  however,  that  all  physical  and 
legal  obstacles  to  the  issuing,  before  the  first  of  November,  of 
a  proclamation,  to  take  eifect  immediately,  were  out  of  the 
way — how  would  such  a  proceeding  fulfil,  of  itself,  the  ex 
pectation  that  the  United  States  would,  before  the  first  of 
November ,  "  cause  their  rights  to  be  respected  by  the  Eng 
lish/'  in  the  mode  pointed  out  in  the  letter,  namely,  by  the 
enforcement  of  the  non-intercourse  law  ?  The  proclamation 
would  work  no  direct  or  immediate  consequence  against 
England.  Three  months  from  its  date  must  pass  away  be 
fore  the  non-intercourse  law  could  revive  against  her  ;  and 
when  it  did  so,  the  revival  would  not  be  the  effect  of  the 
proclamation,  but  of  the  continued  adherence  of  England  to 
her  obnoxious  system.  Thus,  even  if  a  proclamation,  effec 
tual  from  its  date,  had  been  issued  by  the  President  on  the 
day  when  the  French  declaration  of  repeal  came  to  the  hands 
of  the  American  minister  at  Paris,  the  intercourse  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  would,  on  the  first  of 
November,  have  remained  in  the  same  condition  in  which  it 
was  found  in  August.  As  all  this  was  well  understood  by 
the  government  of  France,  the  conclusion  is,  that  its  minis 
ter,  professing  too  to  have  the  American  law  before  him,  and 
to  expect  only  what  was  conformable  with  that  laiv,  did  not 
intend  to  require  the  revival  of  the  non-intercourse  against 
England  as  a  condition  to  be  performed  before  the  first  of 
November. 

u  It  is   worthy  of  remark,  as   introductory  to  another 
view  of  this  subject,  that  even  they  who  conclude  that  the 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  261 

repeal  of  the  French  decrees  has  failed  are  not  backward  to 
ascribe  to  the  French  declaration  a  purpose  utterly  incon 
sistent  with  that  conclusion.  They  suppose  the  purpose  to 
have  been  to  affect  the  existing  relations  between  America 
and  England^  by  the  only  means  which  the  declaration 
states,  the  act  of  non-intercourse.  And  it  is  certain  that 
unless  England  should  abandon  particular  parts  of  her  sys 
tem,  this  was  the  result  avowedly  in  view;  and  meant  to  be 
accomplished.  But  there  could  be  no  hope  of  such  a  result 
without  a  previous  effectual  relinquishment  of  the  French 
decrees.  A  case  could  not  otherwise  be  made  to  exist  (as 
the  Duke  of  Oadore  was  aware)  for  such  an  operation  of  the 
American  law.  To  put  the  law  before  the  revocation  of  the 
edicts  was  impossible.  With  the  law  in  his  hand  it  would 
have  been  miraculous  ignorance  not  to  know  that  it  was  the 
exact  reverse  of  this  which  his  paper  must  propose.  He 
would  derive  this  knowledge,  not  from  that  particular  law 
only,  but  from  the  whole  tenor  and  spirit  of  American  pro 
ceedings,  in  that  painful  and  anomalous  dilemma,  in  which 
Great  Britain  and  France,  agreeing  in  nothing  else,  had  re 
cently  combined  to  place  the  maritime  interests  of  America. 
He  would  collect  from  those  proceedings  that,  while  those 
conflicting  powers  continued  to  rival  each  other  in  their  ag 
gressions  upon  neutral  rights,  the  government  of  the  United 
States  would  oppose  itself  impartially  to  both.  The  French 
declaration,  then,  had  either  no  meaning  at  all,  or  it  meant 
to  announce  to  General  Armstrong  a  positive  revocation  of 
the  French  edicts. 

"  I  should  only  fatigue  your  lordship  by  pursuing  farther 
a  point  so  plain  and  simple.  I  will,  therefore,  merely  add 
to  what  I  have  already  said  on  this  branch  of  the  subject, 
that  the  strong  and  unqualified  communication  from  Gene 
ral  Armstrong  to  me,  mentioned  in  the  commencement  of 
this  letter,  and  corroborated  by  subsequent  communications 
(one  of  which  I  now  lay  before  you),  may,  perhaps,  without 


262  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

any  great  effort  of  courtesy,  be  allowed  to  contain  that 
"  authentic  intelligence  "  which  your  lordship  is  in  search  of. 
He  could  scarcely  have  been  free  from  doubt  if  the  occasion 
was  calculated  to  suggest  it,  and  if  he  had  really  doubted, 
would  hardly  have  spoken  to  me  with  the  confidence  of 
conviction.s 

"  It  only  remains  to  speak  of  the  practical  effect  of  the 
French  repeal.  And  here  your  lordship  must  suffer  me  to 
remind  you  that  the  orders  of  England  in  1807,  did  not 
wait  for  the  practical  effect  of  the  Berlin  decree,  nor  linger 
till  the  obscurity,  in  which  the  meaning  of  that  decree  was 
supposed  to  be  involved,  should  be  cleared  away  by  time 
or  explanation.  They  came  promptly  after  the  decree  it 
self,  while  it  was  not  only  ambiguous  but  inoperative,  and 
raised  upon  an  idle  prohibition,  and  a  yet  more  idle  declara 
tion,  which  France  had  not  attempted  to  enforce,  and  was 
notoriously  incapable  of  enforcing  a  vast  scheme  of  oppres 
sion  upon  the  seas,  more  destructive  of  all  the  acknow 
ledged  rights  of  peaceful  states  than  history  can  parallel. 
This  retaliation,  as  it  wyas  called,  was  so  rapid,  that  it  was 
felt  before  the  injury  which  was  said  to  have  provoked  it ; 
and  yet,  that  injury,  such  as  it  was,  was  preceded  by  the 
practical  assertion,  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  of  new  and 
alarming  principles  of  public  law,  in  the  notification  of  the 
blockade  of  May,  1806,  and  in  the  judicial  decisions  of  the 
year  before.  To  uphold  the  retaliatory  orders,  every  thing 
was  presumed  with  a  surprising  facility.  Not  only  was  an 
impotent,  unexecuted,  and  equivocal  menace  presumed  to  be 
an  active  scourge  of  the  commerce  of  neutral  nations,  but 
the  acquiescence  of  those  nations  was  presumed  against  the 
plainest  evidence  of  facts. 

"  The  alacrity  with  which  all  this  was  done  can  never  be 
remembered  without  regret  and  astonishment ;  but  our  re 
gret  and  astonishment  must  increase,  if,  after  four  years 
have  been  given  to  the  pernicious  innovation,  which  these 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  263 

presumptions  were  to  introduce  and  support,  something  like 
the  same  alacrity  should  not  be  displayed  in  seizing  an  hon 
orable  opportunity  of  discarding  it  for  ever. 

"It  is  not  unnatural  to  imagine  that  it  will  be  discard 
ed  with  pleasure,  ivhen  it  is  considered,  that  having  never 
been  effectual  as  an  instrument  of  hostility,  it  cannot  now 
lay  claim  to  those  other  recommendations  for  which  it  may 
have  heretofore  been  prized.  The  orders  in  council  of  No 
vember  have  passed  through  some  important  changes  ;  but 
they  have  been  steady,  as  long  as  it  was  possible,  to  the 
purpose  ivliicli  first  impressed  on  them  a  character  not  to  be 
mistaken. 

"  In  their  original  plan,  they  comprehended  not  only 
France  and  such  allied  or  dependent  powers  as  had  adopted 
the  edict  of  Berlin,  but  such  other  nations  as  had  merely  ex 
cluded  from  their  ports  the  commercial  flag  of  England. 
This  prodigious  expansion  of  the  system,  was  far  beyond  any 
intelligible  standard  of  retaliation;  but  it  soon  appeared 
that  neutrals  might  be  permitted  to  traffic  under  certain  re 
strictions,  with  all  these  different  nations,  provided  they 
would  submit  with  a  dependence  truly  colonial,  to  carry  on 
their  trade  through  British  ports,  and  to  pay  such  duties  as 
the  British  government  should  think  fit  to  impose,  and  such 
charges  as  British  agents  and  other  British  subjects  might 
be  content  to  make. 

"  The  United  States  abstained  from  this  traffic,  in  which 
they  could  not  embark  without  dishonor  ;  and  in  1809,  the 
system  shrunk  to  narrower  dimensions,  and  took  the  appear 
ance  of  an  absolute  prohibition  of  all  commercial  intercourse 
with  France,  Holland,  and  the  kingdom  of  Italy. 

"  The  prohibition  was  absolute  in  appearance,  but  not 
in  fact.  It  had  lost  something  of  former  exuberance,  but 
nothing  of  former  pliancy,  and  in  the  event  was  seen  to 
yield  to  the  demands  of  one  trade,  while  it  prevented  every 
other. 


264  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

"  Controlled  and  relaxed  and  managed  by  licenses,  it  did 
not,  after  a  brief  exhibition  of  impartial  sternness,  affect  to 
fi  distress  the  enemy  "  by  the  occlusion  of  his  ports,  when  the 
commerce  of  England  could  advantageously  find  its  way  to 
them.  At  length,  however,  this  convenience  seems  to  be  en 
joyed  no  longer,  and  the  orders  in  council  may  apparently  be 
now  considered  (if  indeed  they  ought  not  always  to  have 
been  considered)  as  affecting  England  with  a  loss  as  heavy 
as  that  which  they  inflict  on  those  whose  rights  they 
violate.  In  such  circumstances,  if  it  be  too  much  to  expect 
the  credulity  of  1807,  it  may  yet  be  hoped,  that  the  evidence 
of  the  practical  effect  of  the  French  repeal  need  not  be  very 
strong  to  be  satisfactory.  It  is  however  as  strong  as  the 
nature  of  such  a  case  will  admit,  as  a  few  observations  will 
show. 

"  On  such  an  occasion  it  is  no  paradox  to  say,  that  the 
want  of  evidence  is  itself  evidence  :  That  certain  decrees  are 
not  in  force,  is  proved  by  the  absence  of  such  facts  as  would 
appear  if  they  were  in  force.  Every  motive  which  can  be 
conjectured  to  have  led  to  the  repeal  of  the  edicts,  invites  to 
the  full  execution  of  that  repeal,  and  no  motive  can  be 
imagined  for  a  different  course.  These  considerations  are 
alone  conclusive. 

"  But  farther,  it  is  known  that  American  vessels  bound 
confessedly  to  England,  have,  before  the  1st  of  November, 
been  visited  by  French  privateers,  and  suffered  to  pass  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  prospective  repeal  of  the  decree  of 
Berlin,  and  the  proximity  of  the  day  when  it  would  become 
an  actual  one. 

"  If  there  are  not  even  stronger  facts  to  show  that  the 
decree  of  Milan  is  also  withdrawn,  your  lordship  can  be  at 
no  loss  for  the  reason.  It  cannot  be  proved  that  an  Ameri 
can  vessel  is  practically  held  by  France.  Not  to  be  de 
nationalized  by  British  visitation,  because  your  cruisers  visit 
only  to  capture,  and  compel  the  vessel  visited  to  terminate 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  265 

her  voyage  not  in  France,  but  in  England.  You  will  not  ask 
for  the  issue  of  an  experiment  which  yourselves  intercept, 
nor  complain  that  you  have  not  received  evidence,  which  is 
not  obtained  because  you  have  rendered  it  impossible.  The 
vessel  which  formed  the  subject  of  my  note  of  the  8th  inst., 
and  another  more  recently  seized  as  a  prize,  would,  if  they 
had  been  suffered,  as  they  ought,  to  resume  their  voyages  after 
having  been  stopped  and  examined  by  English  cruisers, 
have  furnished  on  that  point  unanswerable  proof ;  and  I 
have  reason  to  know,  that  precise  offers  have  been  made  to 
the  British  government  to  put  to  a  practical  test  the  dispo 
sition  of  France  in  this  respect,  and  that  those  offers  have 
been  refused.  Your  cruisers,  however,  have  not  been  able  to 
visit  all  American  vessels  bound  to  France,  and  it  is  under 
stood,  that  such  as  have  arrived  have  been  received  with 
friendship. 

"  I  cannot  quit  this  last  question  without  entering  my 
protest  against  the  pretension  of  the  British  government  to 
postpone  the  justice  which  it  owes  to  my  government  and 
country,  for  this  tardy  investigation  of  consequences.     I  am 
not  able  to  comprehend  upon  what  the  pretension  rests,  nor 
to  what  limits  the  investigation  can  be  subjected.    If  it  were 
even  admitted  that  France  was  more  emphatically  bound  to 
repeal  her  almost  nominal  decrees  than  Great  Britain  to  re 
peal  her  substantial  orders  (which  will  not  be  admitted), 
what  more  can  reasonably  be  required  by  the  latter  than  has 
been  done  by  the  former  ?     The  decrees  are  officially  de 
clared  by  the  government  of  France  to  be  repealed.     They 
were  ineffectual  as  a  material  prejudice  to  England  before 
the  declaration,  and   must  be  ineffectual  since.     There  is 
therefore  nothing   of  substance   for  this   dilatory   inquiry, 
which  if  once  begun  may  be  protracted  without  end,  or  at 
least  till  the  hour  for  just  and  prudent  decision  has  passed. 
But,  if  there  were  room  to  apprehend  that  the  repealed  de 
crees  might  have  some  operation  in  case  the  orders  in  conn- 


266  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

cil  were  withdrawn,  still,  as  there  is  no  sudden  and  formida 
ble  peril  to  which  Great  Britain  could  be  exposed  by  that 
operation,  there  can  be  no  reason  for  declining  to  act  at  once 
upon  the  declaration  of  France,  and  to  leave  it  to  the  fu 
ture  to  try  its  sincerity,  if  that  sincerity  be  suspected. 

"  I  have  thus  disclosed  to  your  lordship,  with  that  frank 
ness  which  the  times  demand,  my  view  of  a  subject  deeply 
interesting  to  our  respective  countries.  The  part  which 
Great  Britain  may  act  on  this  occasion  cannot  fail  to  have 
important  and  lasting  consequences,  and  I  can  only  wish 
that  they  may  be  good. 

"  By  giving  up  her  orders  in  council  and  the  blockades, 
to  which  my  letter  of  the  21st  of  September  relates,  she  has 
nothing  to  lose  in  character  or  strength.  By  adhering  to 
them,  she  will  not  only  be  unjust  to  others  but  unjust  to 
herself." 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   LORD   WELLESLEY. 

"  GREAT  CUMBERLAND  PLACE,  Jan.  14,  1811. 

"  MY  LORD  : — I  have  received  the  letter  which  you  did 
me  the  honor  to  address  to  me  on  the  29th  of  last  month, 
and  will  not  fail  to  transmit  a  copy  of  it  to  my  government. 
In  the  mean  time  I  take  the  liberty  to  trouble  you  with  the 
following  reply,  which  a  severe  indisposition  has  prevented 
me  from  preparing  sooner. 

"  The  first  paragraph  seems  to  make  it  proper  for  me  to 
begin  by  saying,  that  the  topics  introduced  into  my  letter  of 
the  10th  of  December,  were  intimately  connected  with  its 
principal  subject,  and  fairly  used  to  illustrate  and  explain 
it ;  and  consequently,  that  if  they  had  not  the  good  fortune 
to  be  acceptable  to  your  lordship,  the  fault  was  not  mine. 

"  It  was  scarcely  possible  to  speak  with  more  moderation 
than  my  paper  exhibits,  of  that  portion  of  a  long  list  of  in 
vasions  of  the  rights  of  the  United  States,  which  it  necessa- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  267 

rily  reviewed,  and  of  the  apparent  reluctance  of  the  British 
government  to  forbear  those  invasions  in  future.  I  do  not 
know  that  I  could  more  carefully  have  abstained  from  what 
ever  might  tend  to  disturb  the  spirit  which  your  lordship 
ascribes  to  his  majesty's  government,  if,  instead  of  being 
utterly  barren  and  unproductive,  it  had  occasionally  been 
visible  in  some  practical  result,  in  some  concession  either  to 
friendship  or  to  justice.  It  would  not  have  been  very  sur 
prising,  nor  very  culpable  perhaps,  if  I  had  wholly  forgotten 
to  address  myself  to  a  spirit  of  conciliation,  which  had  met 
the  most  equitable  claims  with  steady  and  unceasing  repul 
sion  ;  which  had  yielded  nothing  that  could  be  denied  ;  and 
had  answered  complaints  of  injury  by  multiplying  their 
causes.  With  this  forgetfulness,  however,  I  am  not  charge 
able  ;  for,  against  all  the  discouragements  suggested  by  the 
past,  I  have  acted  still  upon  a  presumption  that  the  dispo 
sition  to  conciliate,  so  often  professed,  would  finally  be 
proved  by  some  better  evidence  than  a  perseverance  in 
oppressive  novelties,  as  obviously  incompatible  with  such  a 
disposition  in  those  who  enforce  them,  as  in  those  whose 
patience  they  continue  to  exercise. 

"  Upon  the  commencement  of  the  second  paragraph, 
I  must  observe,  that  the  forbearance  which  it  announces 
might  have  afforded  some  gratification,  if  it  had  been  fol 
lowed  by  such  admissions  as  my  government  is  entitled  to 
expect,  instead  of  a  further  manifestation  of  that  disregard 
of  its  demands,  by  which  it  has  so  long  been  wearied.  It 
has  never  been  my  practice  to  seek  discussions,  of  which  the 
tendency  is  merely  to  irritate  ;  but  I  beg  your  lordship  to*  be 
assured,  that  I  feel  no  desire  to  avoid  them,  whatever  may 
be  their  tendency,  when  the  rights  of  my  country  require  to 
be  vindicated  against  pretensions  that  deny,  and  conduct  that 
infringes  them. 

"  If  I  comprehend  the  other  parts  of  your  lordship's 
letter,  they  declare  in  effect,  that  the  British  government 


268  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

will  repeal  nothing  but  the  orders  in  council,  and  that  it 
cannot  at  present  repeal  even  them,  because  in  the  first 
place,  the  French  government  has  required,  in  the  letter  of 
the  Duke  of  Cadore  to  General  Armstrong,  of  the  5th  of 
August,  not  only  that  Great  Britain  shall  revoke  those 
orders,  but  that  she  shall  renounce  certain  principles  of 
blockade  (supposed  to  be  explained  in  the  preamble  to  the 
Berlin  decree)  which  France  alleges  to  be  new  ;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  because  the  American  government  has  (as  you 
conclude)  demanded  the  revocation  of  the  British  order  of 
blockade  of  May,  1806,  as  a  practical  instance  of  that  same 
renunciation,  or,  in  other  words,  has  made  itself  a  party,  not 
openly  indeed,  but  indirectly  and  covertly,  to  the  entire  re 
quisition  of  France,  as  you  understand  that  requisition. 

"It  is  certainly  true  that  the  American  government  has 
required,  as  indispensable  in  the  view  of  its  acts  of  inter 
course  and  non-intercourse,  the  annulment  of  the  British 
blockade  of  May,  1806  ;  and  further,  that  it  has  through  me 
declared  its  confident  expectation  that  other  blockades  of  a 
similar  character  (including  that  of  the  island  of  Zealand) 
will  be  discontinued.  But  by  what  process  of  reasoning 
your  lordship  has  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  that  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  intended  by  this  requisition  to 
become  the  champion  of  the  edict  of  Berlin,  to  fashion  its 
principles  by  those  of  France  while  it  affected  to  adhere  to 
its  own,  and  to  act  upon  some  partnership  in  doctrines,  which 
it  would  fain  induce  you  to  acknowledge,  but  could  not  pre 
vail  upon  itself  to  avow,  I  am  not  able  to  conjecture.  The 
frank  and  honorable  character  of  the  American  government 
justifies  me  in  saying  that,  if  it  had  meant  to  demand  of 
Great  Britain  an  abjuration  of  all  such  principles  as  the 
French  government  may  think  fit  to  disapprove,  it  would  not 
have  put  your  lordship  to  the  trouble  of  discovering  that 
meaning  by  the  aid  of  combinations  and  inferences  discoun 
tenanced  by  the  language  of  its  minister,  but  would  have 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  269 

told  you  so  in  explicit  terms.  What  I  have  to  request  of 
your  lordship,  therefore,  is,  that  you  will  take  our  views  and 
principles  from  our  own  mouths,  and  that  neither  the  Berlin 
decree,  nor  any  other  act  of  any  foreign  state,  may  be  made 
to  speak  for  us  what  we  have  not  spoken  for  ourselves. 

"  The  principles  of  blockade  which  the  American  govern 
ment  professes,  and  upon  the  foundation  of  which  it  has  repeat 
edly  protested  against  the  order  of  May,  1806,  and  the  other 
kindred  innovations  of  those  extraordinaiy  times,  have 
already  been  so  clearly  explained  to  your  lordship,  in  my 
letter  of  the  21st  of  September,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to 
read  that  letter  and  misunderstand  them.  Kecommended 
by  the  plainest  considerations  of  universal  equity,  you  will 
find  them  supported  with  a  strength  of  argument  and  a 
weight  of  authority,  of  which  they  scarcely  stand  in  need, 
in  the  papers  which  will  accompany  this  letter,  or  were  trans 
mitted  in  that  of  September.  I  will  not  recapitulate  what 
I  cannot  improve  ;  but  I  must  avail  myself  of  this  oppor 
tunity  to  call  your  lordship's  attention  a  second  time,  in  a 
particular  manner,  to  one  of  the  papers  to  which  my  letter 
of  September  refers.  I  allude  to  the  copy  of  an  official  note 
of  the  12th  of  April,  1804,  from  Mr.  Merry  to  Mr.  Madison, 
respecting  a  pretended  blockade  of  Martinique  and  Guada- 
loupe.  No  comment  can  add  to  the  value  of  that  manly 
and  perspicuous  exposition  of  the  law  of  blockade,  as  made 
by  England  herself  in  the  maintenance  of  rules  which  have 
been  respected  and  upheld  in  all  seasons  and  on  all  occasions, 
by  the  government  of  the  United  States.  I  will  leave  it, 
therefore,  to  your  lordship's  consideration,  with  only  this  re 
mark,  that,  while  that  paper  exists,  it  will  be  superfluous  to 
seek  in  any  French  document  for  the  opinions  of  the  Ameri 
can  government  on  the  matter  of  it. 

"  The  steady  fidelity  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  to  its  opinions  on  that  interesting  subject  is  known  to 
every  body.  The  same  principles  which  are  found  in  the 


270  LIFE   OP   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

letter  of  Mr  Madison  to  Mr.  Thornton,  of  the  27th  of  Octo 
ber,  1803,  already  before  you,  were  asserted  in  1799,  by  the 
American  Minister  at  this  court,  in  his  correspondence  with 
Lord  Grenville,  respecting  the  blockade  of  some  of  the  ports 
of  Holland  ;  were  sanctioned  in  a  letter  of  the  20th  of  Sep 
tember,  1800,  from  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  to  Mr.  King,  of  which  an  extract  is  enclosed ;  were 
insisted  upon  in  repeated  instructions  to  Mr.  Monroe  and  the 
special  mission  of  1806  ;  have  been  maintained  by  the 
United  States  against  others  as  well  as  against  England,  as 
will  appear  by  the  enclosed  copy  of  instructions,  dated  the 
21st  of  October,  1801,  from  Mr.  Secretary  Madison  to  Mr. 
Charles  Pinckney,  then  American  Minister  at  Madrid  ;  and 
finally,  were  adhered  to  by  the  United  States,  when  bellig 
erent,  in  the  case  of  the  blockade  of  Tripoli. 

"A  few  words  will  give  a  summary  of  those  principles  ; 
and  when  recalled  to  your  remembrance,  I  am  not  without 
hopes,  that  the  strong  grounds  of  law  and  right,  on  which 
they  stand,  will  be  as  apparent  to  your  lordship  as  they  are 
to  me. 

"  It  is  by  no  means  clear  that  it  may  not  fairly  be  con 
tended,  on  principle  and  early  usage,  that  a  maritime  block 
ade  is  incomplete  with  regard  to  states  at  peace,  unless  the 
place  which  it  would  affect  is  invested  by  land  as  well  as  by 
sea.  The  United  States,  however,  have  called  for  the  recog 
nition  of  no  such  rule.  They  appear  to  have  contented  them 
selves  with  urging  in  substance,  that  ports  not  actually 
blockaded  by  a  present,  adequate,  stationary  force,  employed 
by  the  power  which  attacks  them,  shall  not  be  considered  as 
shut  to  neutral  trade  in  articles  not  contraband  of  war  ;  that, 
though  it  is  usual  for  a  belligerent  to  give  notice  to  neutral 
nations  when  he  intends  to  institute  a  blockade,  it  is  possi 
ble  that  he  may  not  act  upon  his  intention  at  all,  or  that  he 
may  execute  it  insufficiently,  or  that  he  may  discontinue  his 
blockade,  of  which  it  is  not  customary  to  give  any  notice  ; 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  271 

that  consequently  the  presence  of  the  blockading  force,  is  the 
natural  criterion  by  which  the  neutral  is  enabled  to  ascertain 
the  existence  of  the  blockade  at  any  given  period,  in  like 
manner  as  the  actual  investment  of  a  besieged  place,  is  the 
evidence  by  which  we  decide  whether  the  siege,  which  may 
be  commenced,  raised,  recommenced  and  raised  again,  is  con 
tinued  or  not  ;  that  of  course  a  mere  notification  to  a  neutral 
minister  shall  not  be  relied  upon,  as  affecting,  with  know 
ledge  of  the  actual  existence  of  a  blockade,  either  his  govern 
ment  or  its  citizens  ;  that  a  vessel  cleared  or  bound  to  a 
blockaded  port,  shall  not  be  considered  as  violating  in  any 
manner  the  blockade,  unless,  on  her  approach  towards  such 
port,  she  shall  have  been  previously  warned  not  to  enter  it ; 
that  this  view  of  the  law,  in  itself  perfectly  correct,  is  pecu 
liarly  important  to  nations  situated  at  a  great  distance  from 
the  belligerent  parties,  and  therefore  incapable  of  obtaining 
other  than  tardy  information  of  the  actual  state  of  their 
ports  ;  that  whole  coasts  and  countries  shall  not  be  declared 
(for  they  can  never  be  more  than  declared)  to  be  in  a  state 
of  blockade,  and  thus  the  right  of  blockade  converted  into 
the  means  of  extinguishing  the  trade  of  neutral  nations  ; 
and  lastly,  that  every  blockade  shall  be  impartial  in  its  ope 
ration,  or,  in  other  words,  shall  not  open  and  shut  for  the 
convenience  of  the  party  that  institutes  it,  and  at  the  same 
time  repel  the  commerce  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  so  as  to  be 
come  the  odious  instrument  of  an  unjust  monopoly,  instead 
of  a  measure  of  honorable  war. 

"  These  principles  are  too  moderate  and  just  to  furnish 
any  motive  to  the  British  government  for  hesitating  to  re 
voke  its  orders  in  council,  and  those  analogous  orders  of 
blockade,  which  the  United  States  expect  to  be  recalled.  It 
can  hardly  be  doubted  that  Great  Britain  will  ultimately 
accede  to  them  in  their  fullest  extent ;  but  if  that  be  a  san 
guine  calculation  (as  I  trust  it  is  not),  it  is  still  incontrover 
tible,  that  a  disinclination  at  this  moment  to  acknowledge 


272  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

them,  can  suggest  no  national  inducement  for  declining  to 
repeal  at  once  what  every  principle  disowns,  and  what  must 
be  repealed  at  last. 

"  With  regard  to  the  rules  of  blockades,  which  the 
French  government  expects  you  to  abandon,  I  do  not  take 
upon  me  to  decide  whether  they  are  such  as  your  lordship 
supposes  them  to  be  or  not.  Your  view  of  them  may  be 
correct ;  but  it  may  also  be  erroneous ;  and  it  is  wholly  im 
material  to  the  case  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  whether  it  be  the  one  or  the  other. 

"  As  to  such  British  blockades  as  the  United  States  de 
sire  you  to  relinquish,  you  will  not,  I  am  sure,  allege  that  it 
is  any  reason  for  adhering  to  them  that  France  expects  you 
to  relinquish  others.  If  our  demands  are  suited  to  the 
measure  of  our  own  rights,  and  of  your  obligations  as  they 
respect  those  rights,  you  cannot  think  of  founding  a  rejection 
of  them  upon  any  imputed  exorbitance  in  the  theories  of  the 
French  government,  for  which  we  are  not  responsible,  and 
with  which  we  have  no  concern.  If,  when  you  have  done 
justice  to  the  United  States,  your  enemy  should  call  upon 
you  to  go  farther,  what  shall  prevent  you  from  refusing  ? 
Your  free  agency  will  in  no  respect  have  been  impaired. 
Your  case  will  be  better,  in  truth  and  in  the  opinion  of  man 
kind  ;  and  you  will  be,  therefore,  stronger  in  maintaining  it, 
provided  that,  in  doing  so,  you  resort  only  to  legitimate 
means,  and  do  not  once  more  forget  the  rights  of  others, 
while  you  seek  to  vindicate  your  own. 

"  Whether  France  will  be  satisfied  with  what  you  may 
do,  is  not  to  be  known  by  anticipation,  and  ought  not  to  be 
a  subject  of  inquiry.  So  vague  a  speculation  has  nothing 
to  do  with  your  duties  to  nations  at  peace,  and,  if  it  had, 
would  annihilate  them.  It  cannot  serve  your  interests ;  for 
it  tends  to  lessen  the  number  of  your  friends,  without  add 
ing  to  your  security  against  your  enemies. 

"  You  are  required,  therefore,  to  do  right,  and  to  leave 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  273 

the  consequences  to  the  future,  when  by  doing  right  you 
have  every  thing  to  gain  and  nothing  to  lose. 

"  As  to  the  orders  in  council,  which  professed  to  be  a  re 
luctant  departure  from  all  ordinary  rules,  and  to  be  justified 
only  as  a  system  of  retaliation  for  a  pre-existing  measure  of 
France,  their  foundation  (such  as  it  was)  is  gone  the  mo 
ment  that  measure  is  no  longer  in  operation.  But  the  Ber 
lin  decree  is  repealed  :  and  even  the  Milan  decree,  the  suc 
cessor  of  your  orders  in  council,  is  repealed  also.  Why  is  it 
then,  that  your  orders  have  outlived  those  edicts,  and  that 
ther  are  still  to  oppress  and  harass  as  before  ?  Your  lord 
ship  answers  this  question  explicitly  enough,  but  not  satis 
factorily.  You  do  not  allege  that  the  French  decrees  are 
not  repealed ;  but  you  imagine  that  the  repeal  is  not  to  re 
main  in  force,  unless  the  British  government  shall,  in  addi 
tion  to  the  revocation  of  its  orders  in  council,  abandon  its 
system  of  blockade.  I  am  not  conscious  of  having  stated, 
as  your  lordship  seems  to  think,  that  this  is  so,  and  I  belie ve 
in  fact,  that  it  is  otherwise.  Even  if  it  were  admitted,  how 
ever,  the  orders  in  council  ought  nevertheless  to  be  revoked. 
Can  'the  safety  and  honor  of  the  British  nation/  demand 
that  these  orders  shall  continue  to  outrage  the  public  law  of 
the  world,  and  sport  with  the  undisputed  rights  of  neutral 
commerce,  after  the  pretext  which  was  at  first  invented  for 
them  is  gone  ?  But  you  are  menaced  with  the  revival  of 
the  French  system,  and  consequently  may  again  be  furnished 
with  the  same  pretext !  Be  it  so  ;  yet  still,  as  the  system 
and  the  pretext  are  at  present  at  an  end,  so,  of  course,  should 
be  your  orders. 

"  According  to  your  mode  of  reasoning,  the  situation  of 
neutral  trade  is  hopeless  indeed.  Whether  the  Berlin  decree 
exists  or  not,  it  is  equally  to  justify  your  orders  in  council. 
You  issued  them  before  it  was  any  thing  but  a  shadow,  and 
by  doing  so  gave  to  it  all  the  substance  it  could  ever  claim. 
It  is  at  this  moment  nothing.  It  is  revoked  and  has  passed 
18 


274  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

away,  according  to  your  own  admission,  You  choose,  how 
ever,  to  look  for  its  reappearance  ;  and  you  make  your  own 
expectation  equivalent  to  the  decree  itself.  Compelled  to 
concede  that  there  is  no  anti-neutral  French  edict  in  opera 
tion  upon  the  ocean,  you  think  it  sufficient  to  say  that  there 
will  be  such  an  edict,  you  know  not  when  •  and  in  the  mean 
time  you  do  all  you  can  to  verify  your  own  prediction,  by 
giving  to  your  enemy  all  the  provocation  in  your  power  to 
resume  the  decrees  which  he  has  abandoned. 

"  For  my  part,  my  Lord,  I  know  not  what  it  is  that  the 
British  government  requires,  with  a  view  to  what  it  calls  its 
safety  and  its  honor,  as  an  inducement  to  rescind  its  orders 
in  council.  It  does  not,  I  presume,  imagine  that  such  a 
system  will  be  suffered  to  ripen  into  law.  It  must  intend  to 
relinquish  it,  sooner  or  later,  as  one  of  those  violent  experi 
ments  for  which  time  can  do  nothing,  and  to  which  submis 
sion  will  be  hoped  in  vain.  Yet  even  after  the  professed 
foundation  of  this  mischievous  system  is  taken  away,  another 
and  another  is  industriously  procured  for  it,  so  that  no  man 
can  tell  at  what  time,  or  under  what  circumstances,  it  is 
likely  to  have  an  end.  When  realities  cannot  be  found,  pos 
sibilities  supply  their  place,  and  that,  which  was  originally 
said  to  be  retaliation  for  actual  injury,  becomes  at  last  (if 
such  a  solecism  can  be  endured  or  imagined)  retaliation  for 
apprehended  injuries,  which  the  future  may  or  may  not  pro 
duce,  but  which  it  is  certain  have  no  existence  now  ! 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  grant,  for  I  do  not  think,  that  the 
edict  of  Berlin  did  at  any  time  lend  even  a  color  of  equity 
to  the  British  orders  in  council,  with  reference  to  the  United 
States  ;  but  it  might  reasonably  have  been  expected  that 
they,  who  have  so  much  relied  upon  it  as  a  justification, 
would  have  suffered  it  and  them  to  sink  together.  How  this 
is  forbidden  by  your  safety  or  your  honor  remains  to  be  ex 
plained  ;  and  I  am  not  willing  to  believe  that  either,  the  one 
or  the  other  is  inconsistent  with  the  observance  of  substan- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  275 

tial  justice,  and  with  the  prosperity  and  rights  of  peaceful 
states. 

"  Although  your  lordship  has  slightly  remarked  upon  cer 
tain  recent  acts  of  the  French  government,  and  has  spoken 
in  general  terms  of  e the  system  of  violence  and  injustice  now 
pursued  by  France/  as  requiring  '  some  precautions  of  de 
fence  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain/  I  do  not  perceive  that 
you  deduce  any  consequence  from  t'hese  observations,  in  favor 
of  a  perseverance  in  the  orders  in  council.  I  am  not  myself 
aware  of  any  edicts  of  France  which,  now  that  the  Berlin 
and  Milan  decrees  are  repealed,  affect  the  rights  of  neutral 
commerce  on  the  seas.  And  you  will  yourselves  admit  that 
if  any  of  the  acts  of  the  French  government,  resting  on  ter 
ritorial  sovereignty,  have  injured,  or  shall  hereafter  injure, 
the  United  States,  it  is  for  them,  and  for  them  only,  to  seek 
redress.  In  like  manner  it  is  for  Great  Britain  to  determine 
what  precautions  of  defence  those  measures  of  France,  which 
you  denominate  unjust  and  violent,  may  render  it  expedient 
for  her  to  adopt.  The  United  States  have  only  to  insist, 
that  a  sacrifice  of  their  rights  shall  not  be  among  the  number 
of  those  precautions. 

"  In  replying  to  that  passage  in  your  letter,  which  ad 
verts  to  the  American  act  of  non-intercourse,  it  is  only  ne 
cessary  to  mention  the  proclamation  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  of  the  2d  of  November  last,  and  the  act  of 
congress  which  my  letter  of  the  21st  of  September  commu 
nicated,  and  to  add  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  British  gov 
ernment  to  prevent  the  non-intercourse  from  being  enforced 
against  Great  Britain. 

"  Upon  the  concluding  paragraph  of  your  letter  I  will 
barely  observe,  that  I  am  not  in  possession  of  any  document, 
which  you  are  likely  to  consider  as  authentic,  showing  that 
the  French  decrees  are  ( absolutely  revoked  upon  the  single 
tondition  of  the  revocation  of  the  British  orders  in  council/ 
/rat  that  the  information,  which  I  have  lately  received  from 


276  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

the  American  Legation  at  Paris,  confirms  what  I  have 
already  stated,  and  I  think  proved  to  your  lordship,  that 
those  decrees  are  repealed  and  have  ceased  to  have  any  effect. 
I  will  now  trespass  on  you  no  farther  than  to  suggest,  that 
it  would  have  given  me  sincere  pleasure  to  be  enabled  to  say 
as  much  of  the  British  orders  in  council,  and  of  the  blockades 
from  which  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  them." 


MB.   PINKNEY   TO   LORD   WELLESLEY. 

"GREAT  CUMBERLAND  PLACE,  February  Vlth,  1811, 

"  MY  LORD  : — Before  I  reply  to  your  official  communi 
cation  of  the  15th  instant,  you  will  perhaps  allow  me,  in 
acknowledging  the  receipt  of  the  unofficial  paper  which  ac 
companied  it,  to  trouble  you  with  a  few  words. 

"  From  the  appointment  which  you  have  done  me  the 
honor  to  announce  to  me  of  a  minister  plenipotentiary  to  the 
United  States,  as  well  as  from  the  language  of  your  private 
letter,  I  conclude  that  it  is  the  intention  of  the  British  gov 
ernment  to  seek  immediately  those  adjustments  with  Ame 
rica,  without  which,  that  appointment  can  produce  no  bene 
ficial  effect.  I  presume,  that,  for  the  restoration  of  harmony 
between  the  two  countries,  the  orders  in  council  will  be  re 
linquished  without  delay ;  that  the  blockade  of  May  1806 
will  be  annulled  ;  that  the  case  of  the  Chesapeake  will  be 
arranged  in  the  manner  heretofore  intended,  and,  in  general, 
that  all  such  just  and  reasonable  acts  will  be  done  as  are 
necessary  to  make  us  friends. 

"  My  motives  will  not,  I  am  sure,  be  misinterpreted,  if, 
anxious  to  be  enabled  so  to  regulate  my  conduct  in  the  ex 
ecution  of  my  instructions  as  that  the  best  results  may  be 
accomplished,  I  take  the  liberty  to  request  such  explana 
tions  on  these  heads  as  your  lordship  may  think  fit  to  give 
me. 


LIFE  OP   "WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  277 

"  I  ought  to  add,  that,  as  the  levee  of  his  royal  highness 
the  prince  regent  has  been  postponed  until  Tuesday  the  26th 
instant,  I  have  supposed  that  my  audience  of  leave  is  post 
poned  to  the  same  day ;  and  that  I  have,  on  that  ground, 
undertaken  to  delay  my  reply  to  your  official  communication 
until  I  receive  an  answer  to  this  letter." 


MR.    SMITH   TO   MR.    PINKNEY 

"March  1th,  1811. 

"  SIR  : — If,  as  signified  in  your  letter  of  the  24th  of  No 
vember,  you  should  persist  in  the  desire  of  closing  your  mis 
sion  at  London  and  of  returning  to  the  United  States,  I  have 
to  inform  you  that  the  President,  from  his  respect  to  your 
wishes,  cannot  withhold  his  permission.  You  will  accordingly 
herewith  receive  a  letter  of  leave,  to  be  used  in  such  case  or 
in  the  case  pointed  out  in  former  instructions. 

*'  It  affords  me  pleasure,  and  at  the  same  time  real  happi 
ness,  in  being  authorized  to  assure  you  of  the  high  sense  en 
tertained  by  the  President,  of  the  distinguished  talents  and 
faithful  exertions  of  which  you  have  given  so  many  proofs 
during  a  period  of  public  service,  frequently  not  less  embar 
rassing  than  interesting. 

"A  blank  commission  is  also  inclosed,  to  be  filled,  in  case 
of  your  return  to  the  United  States,  with  the  name  of  some 
suitable  person  as  secretary  of  legation." 


MR.    PINKNEY   TO   THE    MARQUIS   DI   CIRCELLO. 

''NAPLES,  August  1±th,  1816. 

"  The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  has  already  had  the  honor  to  mention  to 
his  excellency  the  Marquis  di  Circello,  secretary  of  state  and 
minister  for  foreign  affairs  of  his  majesty  the  king  of  the  two 


278  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

Sicilies,  the  principal  objects  of  his  mission  ;  and  he  now  in 
vites  his  excellency's  attention  to  a  more  detailed  and  formal 
exposition  of  one  of  those  objects. 

"  The  undersigned  is  sure  that  the  appeal,  which  he  is 
about  to  make  to  the  well  known  justice  of  his  Sicilian 
majesty,  in  the  name  and  by  the  orders  of  his  government, 
will  receive  a  deliberate  and  candid  consideration ;  and  that, 
if  it  shall  appear,  as  he  trusts  it  will,  to  be  recommended  by 
those  principles  which  it  is  the  interest  as  well  as  the  duty 
of  all  governments  to  observe  and  maintain,  the  claim  in 
volved  in  it  will  be  admitted,  effectually  and  promptly. 

"  The  undersigned  did  but  obey  the  instructions  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  when  he  assured  his  excel 
lency  the  Marquis  di  Circello,  at  their  first  interview,  that 
his  mission  was  suggested  by  such  sentiments  towards  his 
Sicilian  majesty  as  could  not  fail  to  be  approved  by  him. 
Those  sentiments  are  apparent  in  the  desire  which  the  Pres 
ident  has  manifested,  through  the  undersigned,  that  the 
commercial  relations  between  the  territories  of  his  majesty 
and  those  of  the  United  States  should  be  cherished  by  re 
ciprocal  arrangements,  sought  in  the  spirit  of  enlightened 
friendship,  and  with  a  sincere  view  to  such  equal  advantages, 
as  it  is  for  nations  to  derive  from  one  another.  The  repre 
sentations  which  the  undersigned  is  commanded  to  make 
upon  the  subject  of  the  present  note,  will  be  seen  by  his 
majesty  in  the  same  light.  They  show  the  firm  reliance  of 
the  President  upon  the  disposition  of  the  court  of  Naples 
impartially  to  discuss  and  ascertain,  and  faithfully  to  dis 
charge  its  obligations  toward  foreign  states  and  their  citizens; 
a  reliance  which  the  undersigned  partakes  with  his  govern 
ment  ;  and  under  the  influence  of  which,  he  proceeds  to 
state  the  nature  and  grounds  of  the  reclamation  in  ques 
tion. 

"  It  cannot  but  be  known  to  his  excellency  the  Marquis 
di  Circello,  that,  on  the  1st  of  July,  1809,  the  minister  for 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  279 

foreign  affairs  of  the  then  government  of  Naples,  addressed 
to  Frederick  Degan,  Esq.,  then  consul  of  the  United  States, 
an  official  letter,  containing  an  invitation  to  all  American 
vessels,  having  on  board  the  usual  certificates  of  origin  and 
other  regular  papers,  to  come  direct  to  Naples  with  their 
cargoes  ;  and  that  the  same  minister  caused  that  invitation 
to  be  published  in  every  possible  mode,  in  order  that  it  might 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  those  whom  it  concerned.  It  will 
not  be  questioned  that  the  promise  of  security  necessarily 
implied  in  this  measure  had  every  title,  in  the  actual  circum 
stances  of  Europe,  to  the  confidence  of  distant  and  peaceful 
merchants.  The  merchants  of  America,  as  was  to  have  been 
expected,  did  confide.  Upon  the  credit  and  under  the  pro 
tection  of  that  promise,  they  sent  to  Naples  many  valuable 
vessels  and  cargoes,  navigated  and  documented  with  scru 
pulous  regularity,  and  in  no  respect  obnoxious  to  molestation  ; 
but  scarcely  had  they  reached  the  destination  to  which  they 
had  been  allured,  when  they  were  seized,  without  distinction, 
as  prize,  or  as  otherwise  forfeited  to  the  Neapolitan  govern 
ment,  upon  pretexts  the  most  frivolous  and  idle.  These 
arbitrary  seizures  were  followed,  with  a  rapacious  haste,  by 
summary  decree,  confiscating  in  the  name  and  for  the  use 
of  the  same  government,  the  whole  of  the  property  which 
had  thus  been  brought  within  its  grasp  ;  and  these  decrees, 
which  wanted  even  the  decent  affectation  of  justice,  were 
immediately  carried  into  execution  against  all  the  remon 
strances  of  those  whom,  they  oppressed,  to  enrich  the  treasury 
of  the  state. 

"  The  undersigned  persuades  himself,  that  it  is  not  in  a 
note  addressed  to  the  Marquis  di  Circello,  that  it  is  neces 
sary  to  enlarge  upon  the  singularly  atrocious  character  of 
this  procedure,  for  which  no  apology  can  be  devised,  and  for 
which  none  that  is  intelligible  has  hitherto  been  attempted. 
It  was,  indeed,  an  undisguised  abuse  of  power  of  which 
nothing  could  well  enhance  the  deformity,  but  the  studied 


280  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

deception  that  preceded  and  prepared  it  ;  a  deception  which, 
by  a  sort  of  treason  against  society,  converted  a  proffer  of 
hospitality  into  a  snare,  and  that  salutary  confidence,  with 
out  which  nations  and  men  must  cease  to  have  intercourse, 
into  an  engine  of  plunder. 

"  The  right  of  the  innocent  victims  of  this  unequalled 
act  of  fraud  and  rapine,  to  demand  retribution,  cannot  be 
doubted.  The  only  question  is,  from  whom  are  they  entitled 
to  demand  it  ?  Those,  who  at  that  moment  ruled  in  Na 
ples,  and  were  in  fact  and  in  the  view  of  the  world,  the  gov 
ernment  of  Naples,  have  passed  away  before  retribution 
could  be  obtained,  although  not  before  it  was  required  ;  and, 
if  the  right  to  retribution  regards  only  the  persons  of  those 
rulers  as  private  and  ordinary  wrong- doers,  the  American 
merchants,  whom  they  deluded  and  despoiled  in  the  garb  and 
with  the  instruments  and  for  the  purposes  of  sovereignty, 
must  despair  for  ever  of  redress. 

"  The  undersigned  presumes,  that  such  is  not  the  view 
which  the  present  government  will  feel  itself  justified  in 
taking  of  this  interesting  subject  ;  he  trusts  that  it  will,  on 
the  contrary,  perceive  that  the  claim  which  the  injured  mer 
chant  was  authorized  to  prefer  against  the  government  of 
this  country  before  the  recent  change,  and  which,  but  for 
that  change,  must  sooner  or  later  have  been  successful,  is 
now  a  valid  claim  against  the  government  of  the  same  coun 
try,  notwithstanding  that  change.  At  least,  the  undersigned 
is  not  at  present  aware  of  any  considerations  which,  applied 
to  the  facts  that  characterize  this  case,  can  lead  to  a  differ 
ent  conclusion  ;  and  certainly  it  would  be  matter  for  sincere 
regret,  that  any  consideration  should  be  thought  sufficient 
to  make  the  return  of  his  Sicilian  majesty's  power  fatal  to 
the  rights  of  friendly  strangers,  to  whom  no  fault  can  be 
ascribed. 

"  The  general  principle  that  a  civil  society  may  contract 
obligations  through  its  actual  government,  whatever  that 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  281 

may  be,  and  that  it  is  not  absolved  from  them  by  reason 
simply  of  a  change  of  government  or  of  rulers,  is  universally 
received  as  incontrovertible.  It  is  admitted,  not  merely  by 
writers  on  public  law,  as  a  speculative  truth,  but  by  states 
and  statesmen,  as  a  practical  rule  ;  and,  accordingly,  his 
tory  is  full  of  examples  to  prove,  that  the  undisturbed  pos 
sessor  of  sovereign  power  in  any  society,  whether  a  rightful 
possessor  or  not,  with  reference  to  other  claimants  of  that 
power,  may  not  only  be  the  lawful  object  of  allegiance,  but 
by  many  of  his  acts,  in  his  quality  of  sovereign  de  facto, 
may  bind  the  society,  and  those  who  come  after  him  as 
rulers,  although  their  title  be  adverse  to,  or  even  better  than 
his  own.  The  Marquis  di  Circello  does  not  need  to  be  in 
formed,  that  the  earlier  annals  of  England,  in'  particular, 
abound  in  instructions  upon  this  head. 

"With  regard  to  just  and  beneficial  contracts,  entered 
into  by  such  a  sovereign  with  the  merchants  of  foreign  na 
tions,  or  (which  is  the  same  thing),  with  regard  to  the  deten 
tion  and  confiscation  of  their  property  for  public  uses,  and 
by  his  authority,  in  direct  violation  of  a  pledge  of  safety, 
upon  the  faith  of  which  that  property  arrived  within  the 
reach  of  confiscation,  this  continuing  responsibility  stands 
upon  the  plainest  foundations  of  natural  equity. 

"  It  will  not  be  pretended,  that  a  merchant  is  called  upon 
to  investigate,  as  he  prosecutes  his  traffic,  the  title  of  every 
sovereign,  with  whose  ports,  and  under  the  guarantee  of 
whose  plighted  word,  he  trades.  He  is  rarely  competent. 
There  are  few  in  any  station  who  are  competent  to  an  inves 
tigation  so  full  of  delicacy,  so  perplexed  with  facts  and  prin 
ciples  of  a  peculiar  character,  far  removed  from  the  common 
concerns  of  life.  His  predicament  would  be  to  the  last  de 
gree  calamitous,  if,  in  an  honest  search  after  commercial 
profit,  he  might  not  take  governments  as  he  finds  them,  and 
consequently  rely  at  all  times  upon  the  visible,  exclusive  ac 
knowledged  possession  of  supreme  authority.  If  he  sees  all 


282  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

the  usual  indications  of  established  rule  ;  all  the  distinguish 
ing  concomitants  of  real  undisputed  power,  it  cannot  be  that 
he  is  at  his  peril  to  discuss  mysterious  theories  above  his  ca 
pacity  or  foreign  to  his  pursuits,  and  moreover,  to  connect 
the  results  of  those  speculations  with  events  of  which  his 
knowledge  is  either  imperfect  or  erroneous.  If  he  sees  the 
obedience  of  the  people,  and  the  acquiescence  of  neighboring 
princes,  it  is  impossible  that  it  can  be  his  duty  to  examine, 
before  he  ships  his  merchandise,  whether  it  be  fit  that  these 
should  acquiesce,  or  those  obey.  If,  in  short,  he  finds 
nothing  to  interfere  with  or  qualify  the  dominion  which  the 
head  of  the  society  exercises  over  it,  and  the  domain  which 
it  occupies,  it  is  the  dictate  of  reason,  sanctioned  by  all  ex 
perience,  that  he  is  bound  to  look  no  farther. 

"  It  can  be  of  no  importance  to  him  that,  notwithstand 
ing  all  these  appearances  announcing  lawful  rule,  the  mere 
right  to  fill  the  throne  is  claimed  by,  or  even  resides  in, 
another  than  the  actual  occupant.  The  latent  right  (sup 
posing  it  to  exist),  disjoined  from  and  controverted  by  the 
fact,  is  to  him  nothing  while  it  continues  to  be  latent.  It 
is  only  the  sovereign  in  possession  that  it  is  in  his  power 
to  know.  It  is  with  him  only  that  he  can  enter  into  engage 
ments.  It  is  through  him  only  that  he  can  deal  with  the 
society.  And  if  it  be  true,  that  the  sovereign  in  possession 
is  incapable,  on  account  of  a  conflict  of  title  between  him  and 
another,  who  barely  claims,  but  makes  no  effort  to  assert  his 
claim  ;  of  pledging  the  public  faith  of  the  society  and  of  the 
monarch  to  foreign  traders,  for  commercial  and  other  objects, 
we  are  driven  to  the  monstrous  conclusion,  that  the  society 
is,  in  effect  and  indefinitely,  cut  off  from  all  communication 
with  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  has,  and  can  have,  no  org;an 

'  o 

by  which  it  can  become  accountable  to,  or  make  any  contract 
with  foreigners,  by  which  needful  supplies  may  be  invited 
into  its  harbors,  by  which  famine  may  be  averted,  or  redun 
dant  productions  be  made  to  find  a  market  in  the  wants  of 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  283 

strangers.     It  is,  in  a  word,  an  outcast  from  the  bosom  of 
the  great  community  of  nations,  at  the  very  moment  too, 
when  its  existence,  in  the  form  which  it  has  assumed,  may 
every  where  be  admitted.     And,  even  if  the  dormant  claim 
to  the  throne  should,  at  last,  by  a  fortunate  coincidence  of 
circumstances,  become  triumphant,  and  unite  itself  to  the 
possession,  this  harsh  and  palsying  theory  has  no  assurance 
to  give,  either  to  the  society  or  to  those  who  may  incline  to 
deal  with  it,  that  its  moral  capacity  is  restored,  that  it  is 
an  outcast  no  longer,  and  that  it  may  now,  through  the  pro 
tecting  will  of  its  new  sovereign,  do  what  it  could  not  do 
before.     It  contains,  of  course,  no  adequate  and  certain  pro 
vision  against  even  the  perpetuity  of  the  dilemma  which  it 
creates.     If,  therefore,  a  civil  society  is  not  competent,  by 
rules  in  entire  possession  of  the  sovereignty,  to  enter  into  all 
such  promises  to  the  members  of  other  societies  as  necessity 
or  convenience  may  require,  and  to  remain  unanswerable  for 
the  breach  of  them,  into  whatsoever  shape  the  society  may 
ultimately  be  cast,  or  into  whatsoever  hands  the  government 
may  ultimately  fall  ;  if  a  sovereign,  entirely  in  possession,  is 
not  able,  for  that  reason  alone,  to  incur  a  just  responsibility, 
in  his  political  or  corporate  character,  to  the  citizens  of  other 
countries,  and  to  transmit  that  responsibility,  even  to  those 
who  succeed  him  by  displacing  him,  it  will  be  difficult  to 
show  that  the  moral  capacity  of  a  civil  society  is  any  thing 
but  a  name,  or  the  responsibility  of  sovereigns  any  thing  but 
a  shadow.     And  here  the  undersigned  will  take  the  liberty 
to  suggest,  that  it  is  scarcely  for  the  interest  of  sovereigns  to 
inculcate  as  a  maxim,  that  their  lost  dominions  can  only  be 
recovered  at  the  expense  of  the  unoffending  citizen  of  states 
in  amity,  or,  which  is  equivalent  to  it,  to  make  that  recovery 
the  practical  consummation  of  intermediate  injustice,  by  ut 
terly  extinguishing  the  hope  of  indemnity  and  even  the  title 
to  demand  it. 

"  The  undersigned  will  now,  for  the  sake  of  perspicuity 


284  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

and  precision,  recall  to  the  recollection  of  his  excellency  the 
Marquis  di  Circello,  the  situation  of  the  government  of  Murat 
at  the  epoch  of  the  confiscation  in  question.  Whatever 
might  be  the  origin  or  foundation  of  that  government,  it 
had  for  some  time  been  established.  It  had  obtained  such 
obedience  as  in  such  times  was  customary,  and  had  mani 
fested  itself,  not  only  by  active  internal  exertions  of  legis 
lative  and  executive  powers,  but  by  important  external 
transactions  with  old  and  indisputably  regular  governments. 
It  had  been  (as  long  afterwards  it  continued  to  be)  recognized 
by  the  greatest  potentates,  as  one  of  the  European  family 
of  states,  and  had  interchanged  with  them  ambassadors,  and 
other  public  ministers  and  consuls.  And  Great  Britain,  by 
an  order  in  council  of  the  26th  of  April,  1809,  which  modi 
fied  the  system  of  constructive  blockade,  promulgated  by  the 
orders  of  November,  1807,  had  excepted  the  Neapolitan  ter 
ritories,  with  other  portions  of  Italy,  from  the  operation  of 
that  system,  that  neutrals  might  no  longer  be  prevented 
from  trading  with  them. 

"  Such  was  the  state  of  things  when  American  vessels 
were  tempted  into  Naples,  by  a  reliance  upon  the  passports 
of  its  government,  to  which  perfidy  had  lent  more  than  ordi 
nary  solemnity,  upon  a  declaration  as  explicit,  as  it  was  for 
mal  and  notorious,  that  they  might  come  without  fear,  and 
might  depart  in  peace.  It  was  under  these  circumstances, 
that,  instead  of  being  permitted  to  retire  with  their  lawful 
gains,  both  they  and  their  cargoes  were  seized  and  appro 
priated  in  a  manner  already  related.  The  undersigned  may 
consequently  assume,  that  if  ever  there  was  a  claim  to  com 
pensation  for  broken  faith,  which  survived  the  political  power 
of  those  whose  iniquity  produced  it,  and  devolved  in  full 
force  upon  their  successors,  the  present  claim  is  of  that  de 
scription. 

"  As  to  the  demand  itself,  as  it  existed  against  the  gov 
ernment  of  Murat,  the  Marquis  di  Circello  will  undoubtedly 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PLNKNEY.  285 

• 

be  the  first  to  concede,  not  only  that  it  is  above  reproach, 
but  that  it  rests  upon  grounds  in  which  the  civilized  world 
has  a  deep  and  lasting  interest.  And  with  regard  to  the  li 
ability  of  the  present  government  as  standing  in  the  place  of 
the  former,  it  may  be  taken  as  a  corollary  from  that  conces 
sion  ;  at  least  until  it  has  been  shown,  that  it  is  the  natural 
fate  of  obligations,  so  high  and  sacred,  contracted  by  a  gov 
ernment  in  the  full  and  tranquil  enjoyment  of  power,  to  per 
ish  with  the  first  revolution,  either  in  form  or  rulers,  through 
which  it  may  happen  to  pass  ;  or  (to  state  the  same  proposi 
tion  in  different  terms),  that  it  is  the  natural  operation  of  a 
political  revolution  in  a  state,  to  strip  unfortunate  traders, 
who  have  been  betrayed  and  plundered  by  the  former  sove 
reign,  of  all  that  Ms  rapacity  could  not  reach — the  right  of 
reclamation. 

"  The  wrong  which  the  government  of  Murat  inflicted 
upon  American  citizens,  wanted  nothing  that  might  give 
to  it  atrocity,  or  effect,  as  a  robbery  introduced  by  treachery  ; 
but  however  pernicious  or  execrable,  it  was  still  reparable. 
It  left  in  the  sufferers  and  their  nation  a  right,  which  was  not 
likely  to  be  forgotten  or  abandoned,  of  seeking  and  obtaining 
ample  redress,  not  from  Murat  simply  (who  individually  was 
lost  in  the  sovereign),  but  from  the  government  of  the  coun 
try,  whose  power  he  abused.  By  what  course  of  argument 
can  it  be  proved,  that  this  incontestable  right,  from  which 
that  government  could  never  have  escaped,  has  been  destroy 
ed  by  the  reaccession  of  his  Sicilian  majesty,  after  a  long  in 
terval,  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  same  territories  ? 

"  That  such  a  result  cannot  in  any  degree  be  inferred  from 
the  misconduct  of  the  American  claimants,  is  certain ;  for 
no  misconduct  is  imputable  to  them.  They  were  warranted 
in  every  view  of  the  public  law  of  Europe,  in  holding  com 
mercial  communication  with  Naples  in  the  predicament  in 
which  they  found  it,  and  in  trusting  to  the  direct  and  au 
thentic  assurances,  which  the  government  of  the  place  af- 


286  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

fected  to  throw  over  them  as  a  shield  against  every  danger. 
Their  shipments  were  strictly  within  the  terms  of  those  as 
surances  ;  and  nothing  was  done,  hy  the  shippers  or  their 
agents,  by  which  the  benefit  of  them  might  be  lost  or  im 
paired. 

"  From  what  other  source  can  such  a  result  be  drawn  ? 
Will  it  be  said  that  the  proceeds  of  the  confiscations  were 
not  applied  to  public  purposes  during  the  sovereignty  of 
Murat,  or  that  they  produced  no  public  advantages,  with 
reference  to  which  the  present  government  ought  to  be  lia 
ble  ?  The  answer  to  such  a  suggestion  is,  that  let  the  fact 
be  as  it  may,  it  can  have  no  influence  upon  the  subject.  It 
is  enough  that  the  confiscations  themselves,  and  the  promise 
of  safety  which  they  violated,  were  acts  of  state,  proceeding 
from  him  who  was  then,  and  for  several  successive  years,  the 
sovereign.  The  derivative  liability  of  the  present  govern 
ment  reposes,  not  upon  the  good,  either  public  or  private, 
which  may  have  been  the  fruit  of  such  a  revolting  exhibition 
of  power,  emancipated  from  all  the  restraints  of  principle, 
but  upon  the  general  foundation,  which  the  undersigned  has 
already  had  the  honor  to  expose. 

"  To  follow  the  proceeds  of  these  spoliations  into  the  pub 
lic  treasury,  and  thence  to  all  the  uses  to  which  they  were 
finally  made  subservient,  can  be  no  part  of  the  duty  of  the 
American  claimant.  It  is  a  task  which  he  has  no  means  of 
performing,  and  which,  if  performed  by  others,  could  neither 
strengthen  his  case  nor  enfeeble  it.  And  it  may  confidently 
be  insisted,  not  only  that  he  has  no  concern  with  the  partic 
ular  application  of  these  proceeds,  but  that,  even  if  he  had, 
he  would  be  authorized  to  rely  upon  the  presumption,  that 
they  were  applied  as  public  money  to  public  ends,  or  left  in 
the  public  coffers.  It  must  be  remembered,  moreover,  that 
whatever  may  have  been  the  destiny  of  these  unhallowed 
spoils,  they  cannot  well  have  failed  to  be  instrumental  in  me 
liorating  the  condition  of  the  country.  They  afforded  extra- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  287 

ordinary  pecuniary  means,  which,  as  far  as  they  extended, 
must  have  saved  it  from  an  augumentation  of  its  burdens  ; 
or  by  relieving  the  ordinary  revenue,  made  that  revenue  ad 
equate  to  various  improvements,  either  of  use  or  beauty^ 
which  otherwise  it  could  not  have  accomplished.  The  terri 
tories,  therefore,  under  the  sway  of  Murat,  must  be  supposed 
to  have  returned  to  his  Sicilian  majesty  much  less  exhausted, 
more  embellished,  and  more  prosperous,  than  if  the  property 
of  American  citizens  had  not  in  the  mean  time  been  sacri 
ficed  to  cupidity  and  cunning.  It  must  further  be  remem 
bered,  that  a  part  of  that  property  was  notoriously  devoted 
to  the  public  service.  Some  of  the  vessels  seized  by  the  or 
ders  of  Murat,  were,  on  account  of  their  excellent  construc 
tion,  converted  into  vessels  of  war,  and  as  such  commissioned 
by  the  government  ;  and  the  undersigned  is  informed  that 
they  are  now  in  possession  of  the  officers  of  his  Sicilian  ma 
jesty,  and  used  and  claimed  as  belonging  to  him. 

"The  undersigned  having  thus  briefly  explained  to  the 
Marquis  di  Circello,  the  nature  of  the  claim  which  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  has  commanded  him  to  submit 
to  the  reflection  of  the  government  of  his  Sicilian  majesty, 
forbears  at  present  to  multiply  arguments  in  support  of  it. 
He  feels  assured  that  the  equitable  disposition  of  his  majesty 
renders  superfluous  the  further  illustrations  of  which  it  is  sus 
ceptible." 


288  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 


MISSOURI  QUESTION. 

IT  was  a  splendid  spectacle  the  American  Senate  Cham 
ber  presented,  according  to  contemporaneous  authority,  the 
day  that  William  Pinkney  arose  to  participate  in  this  mo 
mentous  discussion.  The  reputation  of  the  speaker,  just 
transplanted  from  the  forum  to  that  garden  of  American 
legislators,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  question  involved,  ex 
cited  the  public  mind  to  the  highest  state  of  expectation, 
and  brought  to  the  Capitol  such  a  crowd  as  has  rarely  if  ever 
been  gathered  within  its  walls.  Rufus  King,  an  honored  son 
of  New- York,  a  gentleman  of  enlarged  views  and  command 
ing  abilities,  who  had  borne  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  foreign 
service  of  his  country  as  well  as  her  deliberative  councils  at 
home,  was  then  a  Senator.  He  was  a  splendid  specimen  of 
a  man,  and  wore  his  varied  honors  with  wondrous  grace. — 
Otis,  Dana,  Barbour,  Macon  and  Burril,  were  his  distin 
guished  associates  in  this  first  deliberative  assembly  of  the 
world.  Mr.  King  felt  the  grandeur  and  responsibility  of  the 
occasion.  The  country  he  knew  had  a  deep  interest  at  stake. 
He  knew  also  that  many  eyes  were  upon  him,  that  he  was 
now  called  upon  to  give  to  the  country  and  the  world  the 
closing  speech  of  his  life,  and  leave  behind  him  the  noblest 
exposition  he  could  of  the  constitution.  That  speech  was 
delivered.  Its  eloquent  warnings  filled  the  land.  Many 
prided  themselves  upon  this  effort  of  the  distinguished  and 
venerable  champion  of  the  North.  A  gentleman  rose  to  re 
ply  to  it,  who  was  not  altogether  a  stranger  to  the  Senate. 
He  came  from  an  arena,  on  which  his  powers  had  been  tested 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  289 

by  the  strongest  men  of  the  land  ;  and  if  he  stood  not  "  quite 
alone,  he  had  confessedly  no  superior."  Fresh,  too,  from  a 
diplomatic  service,  in  which  he  had  evinced  his  usual  ability 
and  discretion,  he  brought  with  him  to  that  Senate  Chamber 
a  world-wide  reputation.  Already  upon  this  very  question, 
his  voice  had  been  heard  in  a  most  admirable  and  powerful 
speech  ;  so  that,  although  little  more  than  six  weeks  a  mem 
ber  of  the  body,  we  are  justified  in  saying  that  he  was  not 
altogether  a  stranger.  New  to  the  scene  ;  inexperienced  in 
senatorial  life  he  was,  but  still  not  unknown.  Deep  was  the 
interest  awakened  in  the  public  mind  by  this  approaching 
conflict,  in  which  Maryland's  favorite  son  was  to  measure  a 
lance  with  the  veteran  statesman  of  New-York.  It  was  not 
a  mere  personal  feeling,  not  a  vainglorious  conflict  of  rival 
ry,  that  caused  them  to  assume  this  antagonistic  position. 
That  would  have  been  unworthy  of  the  Senate  and  the 
country.  It  was  a  high  constitutional  question  that  divided 
them.  It  was  a  grave  conflict  of  opinion  that  made  up  the 
struggle.  Mr.  King  had  chosen  his  position — selected  his 
ground — marshalled  his  arguments — arrayed  his  facts.  He 
came  thoroughly  equipped  to  the  battle.  The  chosen  rep 
resentatives  of  the  views  of  a  portion  of  the  northern  wing  of 
the  confederacy,  he  was  no  mean  antagonist.  The  North  had 
spoken,  well  and  powerfully,  through  him.  Pinkney  arose. 
The  occasion  was  one  of  imposing  sublimity — the  scene 
worthy  of  the  occasion,  and  the  advocate,  with  whom  he  was 
now  brought  in  direct  collision,  worthy  of  both. 

The  talent,  the  taste,  and  beauty  of  the  land  were 
there.  Crowd  upon  crowd  thronged  the  galleries.  Every 
nook  and  corner  of  the  large,  capacious  hall  was  filled  almost 
to  suffocation.  Hundreds  went  away  disappointed,  unable 
to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  orator  or  a  tone  of  his  powerful 
and  melodious  voice.  All  business  was  suspended  in  the 
Lower  House,  for  the  representatives  from  all  parts  of  the 
Union  participated  to  the  full  in  the  common  desire  to  wit- 
19 


290  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

ness  this  conflict  of  mind  with  mind,  The  whole  country 
was  alive.  The  public  peace  and  safety  had  been  seriously 
threatened.  Mr.  King's  dark  and  dismal  picturings  had  no 
tendency  to  allay  the  popular  apprehension  or  quiet  the 
public  agitation.  Some  hoped — others  feared.  All  partook 
more  or  less  of  the  intense  anxiety.  Pinkney  arose.  The 
very  novelty  of  the  scene,  and  the  sight  of  a  new  antagonist 
upon  a  field  of  such  thriving  issues,  where  all  his  long  che 
rished  principles  of^onstitutionul  interpretation  so  thor 
oughly  coincided  With  the  position  he  occupied,  only  tended 
to  give  greater  impetus  and  wider  scope  to  the  workings  of 
his  giant  intellect.  It  was  in  opposition  that  Mr.  Pinkney 
exhibited  to  most  advantage  his  wondrous  power.  Not  far 
from  the  spot  where  Webster  subsequently  encountered 
Hayne,  he  stood..  There  was  unusual  fire  in  his  fine  blue 
eye,  and  exulting  hope.  Strong  in  the  confidence  he  reposed 
in  the  views  he  entertained  of  the  constitution,  he  was  not 
less  strong  in  his  reliance  "  upon  the  unsophisticated  good 
sense  of  the  American  people."  Taking  up  that  glorious 
charter  of  our  liberties,  and  following  Mr.  King  step  by  step 
in  argument  and  illustration,  he  poured  forth  the  treasures 
of  his  mind  with  a  keenness  of  analysis  and  a  copiousness  and 
concentration  of  reasoning,  that  annihilated  at  once  and  for 
ever  the  position  of  his  opponent.  This  speech  more  than 
sustained  the  reputation  of  the  orator,  and  gratified  to  the 
full  the  highest  expectations  of  the  audience.  It  was  a  sur 
prising  combination  of  eloquence  and  argument,  beauty  and 
strength,  amplitude  and  condensation.  Although  a  close 
and  severe  logical  discussion,  it  rivetted  attention,  and 
called  forth  as  extraordinary  panegyric  as  was  ever  vouch 
safed  to  any  other  parliamentary  effort.  That  speech  is  a 
sort  of  beacon  light,  by  which  men  may  make  the  most  ex 
traordinary  developments  of  oratorical  power  and  ability  of 
argument.  One  of  the  most  significant  proofs  of  its  power 
was  the  fact,  that  Rufus  King  never  answered  it.  I  have 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY  291 

been  told,  upon  what  I  think  good  authority,  that  Mr.  King 
himself  with  a  magnanimity  worthy  of  all  praise,  took  occa 
sion  to  say  that,  during  the  time  Mr.  Pinkney  was  speaking, 
he  could  not  shake  off  the  impression  that  he  must  be 
wrong 

A  not  less  significant  proof  of  the  rare  power  of  this 
speech  may  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  even  learned  historians 
at  the  North,  blinded  by  prejudice,  have  conspired  with 
stump  orators  and  pamphleteers  to  misrepresent  grossly  the 
views  expressed,  and  the  line  of  argument  pursued  on  that 
occasion.  Hildreth  states  (vol.  6,  689),  that  "  Pinkney  ap 
peared  on  the  other  side  as  leading  orator  for  the  extension 
of  slavery."  And  again,  "  that  Pinkney  and  Clay,  both  of 
whom  had  begun  their  political  career  with  earnest  efforts 
for  the  curtailment  and  abolition  of  slavery  in  their  respec 
tive  States,  were  now  among  the  most  vehement  advocates 
for  its  extension  all  over  the  new  West."^  Let  any  one  read 
the  speech,  and  if  he  does  not  see  through  the  thinly  veiled 
misrepresentation  and  misconception  of  this  author,  he  must 
be  blind,  indeed.  Mr.  Pinkney  stood  up  in  defence  of  the 
constitution.  He  stood  by  the  States,  maintained  their 
original  and  indestructible  equality,  and  denied  that  you 
"  could  make  the  Union  as  to  the  new  States  what  it  is  not 
as  to  the  old."  He  deprecated  the  introduction  of  such  ex 
traneous  matter  as  had  been  unwisely  forced  into  the  discus 
sion,  and  unwove  the  web  so  artistically  wowen  by  the  Sen 
ator  from  New- York.  It  was  not  a  discussion  on  slavery  at 
all.  It  was  a  bare,  naked,  constitutional  question,  and  as 
such  Mr.  Pinkney  treated  it. 

It  excites  a  smile  to  read  a  little  further  on  in  the  pages 
of  this  recondite  historian.  "  That  the  idea"  that  Congress 
had  no  power  to  impose  conditions  in  the  admission  of  new 
States,  "  was  ridiculous."  It  may  be  that  the  principles  of 
constitutional  law,  so  eloquently  enforced  by  Mr.  Pinkney  in 
this  speech,  and  so  extensively  indorsed,  are,  after  all,  mere 


292  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

dreams  of  the  imagination,  sickly  notions,  which,  after 
stalking  through  the  halls  of  legislation  like  ghosts,  struck 
northern  statesmen  dumb,  may  be  dispelled  by  one  wave  of 
the  historic  wand,  never  more  to  mislead  or  confound  the 
world.  It  may  be  that  argument  unanswered  will  sink  be 
fore  "assertion  without  proof" — but  really,  Mr.  Hildreth 
must  excuse  us  if  we  prove  a  little  refractory,  and  refuse  to 
acknowledge  any  idea  ridiculous,  which  is  sustained  by  such 
power  of  argument  and  force  of  eloquence.  When  an  histo 
rian  manifests  such  carelessness  (I  had  well  nigh  said,  reck 
lessness  of  assertion),  he  must  bear  with  us  if  we  demur  to 
his  decision  of  grave  points  of  constitutional  law,  which  he 
has  neither  the  capacity  to  decide,  nor  the  authority. 

We  ask  a  perusal  of  the  speech,  and  although  it  must 
suffer  from  the  imperfection  of  the  report,  we  have  no  fears 
concerning  it.  It  is  a  gern  of  American  eloquence,  that  has 
lost  nothing  of  its  splendor  in  its  passage  through  the  cruci 
ble  of  an  unsparing  criticism  : — 

/'~^|  SPEECH    ON    THE    MISSOURI    QUESTION. 

As  I  am  not  a  very  frequent  speaker  in  this  Assembly, 
and  have  shown  a  desire,  I  trust,  rather  to  listen  to  the  wis 
dom  of  others,  than  to  lay  claim  to  superior  knowledge  by 
undertaking  to  advise,  even  when  advice,  by  being  seasona 
ble  in  point  of  time,  might  have  some  chance  of  being  profi 
table,  you  will,  perhaps,  bear  with  me  if  I  venture  to  trouble 
you  once  more  on  that  eternal  subject  which  has  lingered 
here,  until  all  its  natural  interest  is  exhausted,  and  every 
topic  connected  with  it  is  literally  wrorn  to  tatters.  I  shall, 
I  assure  you,  sir,  speak  with  laudable  brevity — not  merely 
on  account  of  the  feeble  state  of  my  health,  and  from  some 
reverence  for  the  laws  of  good  taste  which  forbid  me  to  speak 
otherwise,  but  also  from  a  sense  of  justice  to  those  who  honor 
me  with  their  attention.  My  single  purpose,  as  I  suggested 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  293 

yesterday,  is  to  subject  to  a  friendly,  yet  close  examination, 
some  portions  of  a  speech,  imposing  certainly  on  account  of 
the  distinguished  quarter  from  whence  it  came — not  very 
imposing  (if  I  may  so  say,  without  departing  from  that  re 
spect  which  I  sincerely  feel  and  intend  to  manifest  for  emi 
nent  abilities  and  long  experience)  for  any  other  reason. 

I  believe,  Mr.  President,  that  I  am  about  as  likely  to 
retract  an  opinion  which  I  have  formed,  as  any  member  of 
this  body,  who,  being  a  lover  of  truth,  inquires  after  it  with 
diligence  before  he  imagines  that  he  has  found  it ;  but  I  sus 
pect  that  we  are  all  of  us  so  constituted  as  that  neither  ar 
gument  nor  declamation,  levelled  against  recorded  and  pub 
lished  decision,  can  easily  discover  a  practicable  avenue 
through  which  it  may  hope  to  reach  either  our  heads  or  our 
hearts.  I  mention  this,  lest  it  may  excite  surprise,  when  I 
take  the  liberty  to  add,  that  the  speech  of  the  honorable 
gentleman  from  New- York,  upon  the  great  subject  with 
which  it  was  principally  occupied,  has  left  me  as  great  an 
infidel  as  it  found  me.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  if  I  had 
had  the  good  fortune  to  hear  that  speech  at  an  earlier  stage 
of  this  debate,  when  all  was  fresh  and  new,  although  I  feel 
confident  that  the  analysis  which  it  contained  of  the  consti 
tution,  illustrated  as  it  was  by  historical  anecdote  rather  than 
by  reasoning,  would  have  been  just  as  unsatisfactory  to  me 
then  as  it  is  now,  I  might  not  have  been  altogether  unmoved 
by  those  warnings  of  approaching  evil  which  it  seemed  to 
intimate,  especially  when  taken  in  connection  with  the  obser 
vations  of  the  same  honorable  gentleman  on  a  preceding  day, 
"that  delays  in  disposing  of  this  subject,  in  the  manner  he 
desires,  are  dangerous,  and  that  we  stand  on  slippery  ground." 
I  must  be  permitted,  however  (speaking  only  for  myself), 
to  say,  that  the  hour  of  dismay  is  passed.  I  have  heard  the 
tones  of  the  larurn  bell  on  all  sides,  until  they  have  become 
lamiliar  to  my  ear,  and  have  lost  their  power  to  appall,  if, 
indeed,  they  ever  possessed  it.  Notwithstanding  occasional 


294  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

appearances  of  rather  an  unfavorable  description,  I  have  long 
since  persuaded  myself'  that  the  Missouri  Question,  as  it  is 
called,  might  be  laid  to  rest,  with  innocence  and  safety,  by 
some  conciliatory  compromise  at  least,  by  which,  as  is  our 
duty,  we  might  reconcile  the  extremes  of  conflicting  views 
and  feelings,  without  any  sacrifice  of  constitutional  principle ; 
and  in  any  event,  that  the  Union  would  easily  and  trium 
phantly  emerge  from  those  portentous  clouds  with  which  tins 
controversy  is  supposed  to  have  environed  it. 

I  confess  to  you,  nevertheless,  that  some  of  the  princi 
ples  announced  by  the  honorable  gentleman  from  New- York,* 
wifcK"an  explicitness  that  reflected  the  highest  credit  on  his 
candor,  did,-  wrhen  they  were  first  presented,  startle  me  not  a 
little.  They  were  riot  perhaps  entirely  new.  Perhaps  I  had 
seen  them  before  in  some  shadowy  and  doubtful  shape, 

i:If  shape  it  might  be  called,  that  shape  had  none 
Disting'uishable  in  member,  joint,  or  limb." 

But  in  the  honorable  gentleman's  speech  they  were  shadowy 
and  doubtful  no  longer.  He  exhibited  them  in  forms  so 
boldly  and  accurately  defined — with  contours  so  distinctly 
traced — with  features  so  pronounced  and  striking,  that  I  was 
unconscious  for  a  moment  that  they  might  be  old  acquaint 
ances.  I  received  them  as  novl  hospitcs  within  these  walls, 
and  gazed  upon  them  with  astonishment  and  alarm.  JLJiuve 
recovered,  however,  thank  God,  from  this  paroxysm" of  terror, 
although  not  from  that  of  astonishment.  I  have  sought 
and  found  tranquillity  and  courage  in  my  former  consolatory 
faith.  My  reliance  is  that  these  principles  will  obtain  no 
general  currency ;  for,  if  they  should,  it  requires  no  gloomy 
imagination  to  sadden  the  perspective  of  the  future.  My 
reliance  is  upon  the  unsophisticated  good  sense  and  noble 
spirit  of  the  American  people.  I  have  what  I  may  be  al 
lowed  to  call  a  proud  and  patriotic  trust,  that  they  will  give 
countenance  to  no  principles,  which,  if  followed  out  to  then 
*  Mr.  King. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  295 

obvious  consequences,  will  not  only  shake  the  goodly  fabric 
of  the  Union  to  its  foundations,  but  reduce  it  to  a  melan 
choly  ruin.  The  people  of  this  country,  if  I  do  not  wholly 
mistake  their  character,  are  wise  as  well  as  virtuous.  They 
know  the  value  of  that  federal  association  which  is  to  them 
the  single  pledge  and  guarantee  of  power  and  peace.  Their 
warm  and  pious  affections  will  cling  to  it  as  to  their  only  hope 
of  prosperity  and  happiness,  in  defiance  of  pernicious  ab 
stractions,  by  whomsoever  inculcated,  or  howsoever  seductive 
and  alluring  in  their  aspec^j 

Sir,  it  is  not  an  occasion  like  this,  although  connected, 
as  contrary  to  all  reasonable  expectation  it  has  been,  with 
fearful  and  disorganizing  theories,  which  would  make  our 
estimates,  whether  fanciful  or  sound,  of  natural  law,  the 
measure  of  civil  rights  and  political  sovereignty  in  the  social 
state,  that  can  harm  the  Union.  It  must,  indeed,  be  a 
mighty  storm  that  can  push  from  its  moorings  this  sacred 
ark  of  the  common  safety.  It  is  not  every  trifling  breeze, 
however  it  may  be  made  to  sob  and  howl  in  imitation  of  the 
tempest,  by  the  auxiliary  breath  of  the  ambitious,  the  timid, 
or  the  discontented,  that  can  drive  this  gallant  vessel, 
freighted  with  every  thing  that  is  dear  to  an  American  bo 
som,  upon  the  rocks,  or  lay  it  a  sheer  hulk  upon  the  ocean. 
I  may  perhaps  mistake  the  flattering  suggestions  of  hope 
(the  greatest  of  all  flatterers,  as  we  are  told),  for  the  conclu 
sions  of  sober  reason.  Yet  it  is  a  pleasing  error,  if  it  be  an 
error,  and  no  man  shall  take  it  from  me.  I  will  continue  to 
cherish  the  belief,  in  defiance  of  the  public  patronage  given 
by  the  honorable  gentleman  from  New- York,  with  more 
than  his  ordinary  zeal  and  solemnity,  to  deadly  speculations, 
which,  invoking  the  name  of  God  to  aid  their  faculties  for 
mischief,  strike  at  all  establishments,  that  the  union  of  these 
States  is  formed  to  bear  up  against  far  greater  shocks  than, 
through  all  vicissitudes,  it  is  ever  likely  to  encounter.  I 
will  continue  to  cherish  the  belief,  that,  although  like  all 


296  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

other  human  institutions  it  may  for  a  season  be  disturbed, 
or  suffer  momentary  eclipse  by  the  transit  across  its  disk  of 
some  malignant  planet,  it  possesses  a  recuperative  force,  a 
redeeming  energy  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  that  will 
soon  restore  it  to  its  wonted  calm,  and  give  it  back  its  ac 
customed  splendor.  On  such  a  subject  I  will  discard  all 
hysterical  apprehensions' — I  will  deal  in  no  sinister  auguries 
— I  will  indulge  in  no  hypochondriacal  forebodings.  I  will 
look  forward  to  the  future  with  gay  and  cheerful  hope  ;  and 
will  make  the  prospect  smile,  in  fancy  at  least,  until  over 
whelming  reality  shall  render  it  no  longer  possible. 

I  have  said  thus  much,  Sir,  in  order  that  I  may  be  un 
derstood  as  meeting  the  constitutional  question  as  a  mere 
question  of  interpretation,  and  as  disdaining  to  press  into 
the  service  of  my  argument  upon  it  prophetic  fears  of  any 
sort,  however  they  may  be  countenanced  by  an  avowal,  for 
midable  by  reason  of  the  high  reputation  of  the  individual 
by  whom  it  has  been  hazarded,  of  sentiments  the  most  de 
structive,  which,  if  not  borrowed  from,  are  identical  with, 
the  worst  visions  of  the  political  philosophy  of  France  when 
all  the  elements  of  discord  and  misrule  were  let  loose  upon 
that  devoted  nation.  I  mean  "  the  infinite  perfectibility  of 
man  and  his  institutions,"  and  the  resolution  of  every  thing 
into  a  state  of  nature.  I  have  another  motive,  which,  at 
the  risk  of  being  misconstrued,  I  will  declare  without  reserve. 
With  my  convictions,  and  with  my  feelings,  I  never  will 
consent  to  hold  confederated  America  as  bound  together  by 
a  silken  cord,  which  any  instrument  of  mischief  may  sever, 
to  the  view  of  monarchical  foreigners,  who  look  with  a  jealous 
eye  upon  that  glorious  experiment  which  is  now  in  progress 
amongst  us  in  favor  of  republican  freedom.  Let  them 
make  such  prophecies  as  they  will,  and  nourish  such  feelings 
as  they  may,  I  will  not  contribute  to  the  fulfilment  of  the 
former,  nor  minister  to  the  gratification  of  the  latter. 

Sir,  it  was  but  the  other  day  that  we  were  forbidden 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  297 

(properly  forbidden  I  am  sure,  for  the  prohibition  came  from 
you)  to  assume  that  there  existed  any  intention  to  impose 
a  prospective  restraint  on  the  domestic  legislation  of  Mis 
souri — a  restraint  to  act  upon  it  contemporaneously  with  its 
origin  as  a  State,  and  to  continue  adhesive  to  it  through  all 
the  stages  of  its  political  existence.  We  are  now,  however, 
permitted  to  know  that  it  is  determined  by  a  sort  of  political 
surgery  to  amputate  one  of  the  limbs  of  its  local  sovereignty, 
and  thus  mangled  and  disparaged,  and  thus  only,  to  receive 
it  into  the  bosom  of  the  constitution.  It  is  now  avowed 
that,  while  Maine  is  to  be  ushered  into  the  Union  with  every 
possible  demonstration  of  studious  reverence  on  our  part, 
and  on  hers  with  colors  flying,  and  all  the  other  graceful 
accompaniments  of  honorable  triumph,  this  ill-conditioned 
upstart  of  the  West,  this  obscure  foundling  of  a  wilderness 
that  was  but  yesterday  the  hunting-ground  of  the  savage,  is* 
to  find  her  way  into  the  American  family  as  she  can,  with  an 
humiliating  badge  of  remediless  inferiority  patched  upon  her 
garments,  with  the  mark  of  recent,  qualified  manumission 
upon  her,  or  rather  with  a  brand  upon  her  forehead  to  tell 
the  story  of  her  territorial  vassalage,  and  to  perpetuate  the 
memory  of  her  evil  propensities.  It  is  now  avowed  that, 
while  the  robust  district  of  Maine  is  to  be  seated  by  the  side 
of  her  truly  respectable  parent,  co-ordinate  in  authority  and 
honor,  and  is  to  be  dandled  into  that  power  and  dignity  of 
which  she  does  not  stand  in  need,  but  which  undoubtedly 
she  deserves,  the  more  infantine  and  feeble  Missouri  is  to  be 
repelled  with  harshness,  and  forbidden  to  come  at  all,  unless 
with  the  iron  collar  of  servitude  about  her  neck,  instead  of 
the  civic  crown  of  republican  freedom  upon  her  brows,  and 
is  to  be  doomed  for  ever  to  leading  strings,  unless  she  will 
exchange  those  leading  strings  for  shackles. 

I  am  told  that  you  have  the  power  to  establish  this  odious 
and  revolting  distinction,  and  I  am  referred  for  the  proofs 
of  that  power  to  various  parts  of  the  constitution,  but  prin- 


298  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

cipally  to  that  part  of  it  wliich  authorizes  the  admission  of 
new  States  into  the  Union.  I  ani  myself  of  opinion  that  it 
is  in  that  part  only  that  the  advocates  for  this  restriction 
can,  with  any  hope  of  success,  apply  for  a  license  to  impose 
it;  and  that  the  efforts  which  have  been  made  to  find  it  in 
other  portions  of  that  instrument,  are  too  desperate  to  re 
quire  to  be  encountered.  I  shall,  however,  examine  those 
Other  portions  before  I  have  done,  lest  it  should  be  supposed 
by  those  who  have  relied  upon  them,  that  what  I  omit  to 
answer  I  believe  to  be  unanswerable. 

The  clause  of  the  constitution  which  relates  to  the  ad 
mission  of  new  States  is  in  these  words  :  "  The  Congress 
may  admit  new  States  into  this  Union,"  &c.,  and  the  advo 
cates  for  restriction  maintain  that  the  use  of  the  word  "  may" 
imports  discretion  to  admit  or  to  reject  ;  and  that  in  this 
^discretion  is  wrapped  up  another — that  of  prescribing  the 
terms  and  conditions  of  admission  in  case  you  are  willing  to 
admit  :  Cujus  est  dare  ejus  est  disponere.  I  will  not  for  the 
present  inquire  whether  this  involved  discretion  to  dictate 
the  terms  of  admission  belongs  to  you  or  not.  It  is  fit  that 
I  should  first  look  to  tJie  nature  and  extent  of  it. 

ll  think  I  may  assume  that  if  such  a  power  be  any  thing 
but  nominal,  it  is  much  more  than  adequate  to  the  present 
object;  that  it  is  a  power  of  vast  expansion,  to  which  human 
sagacity  can  assign  no  reasonable  limits  ;  that  it  is  a  capa 
cious  reservoir  of  authority,  from  which  you  may  take,  in  all 
time  to  come,  as  occasion  may  serve,  the  means  of  oppression 
as  well  as  of  benefaction.  I  know  that  it  professes  at  this 
moment  to  be  the  chosen  instrument  of  protecting  mercy, 
and  would  win  upon  us  by  its  benignant  smiles  :  but  I  know 
too  it  can  frown,  and  play  the  tyrant,  if  it  be  so  disposed. 
Notwithstanding  the  softness  which  it  now  assumes,  and  the 
care  with  which  it  conceals  its  giant  proportions  beneath  the 
deceitful  drapery  of  sentiment,  when  it  next  appears  before 
you  it  may  show  itself  with  a  sterner  countenance  and  in 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  299 

more  awful  dimensions.  It  is,  to  speak  the  truth,  Sir,  a 
power  of  colossal  size — if  indeed  it  be  not  an  abuse  of  lan 
guage  to  call  it  by  the  gentle  name  of  a  power.  Sir,  it  is  a 
wilderness  of  powers,  of  which  fancy  in  her  happiest  mood  is 
unable  to  perceive  the  far-distant  and  shadowy  boundary. 
Armed  with  such  a  power,  with  religion  in  one  hand  and 
philanthropy  in  the  other,  and  followed  with  a  goodly  train 
of  public  and  private  virtues,  you  may  achieve  more  con 
quests  over  sovereignties  not  your  own  than  falls  to  the  com 
mon  lot  of  even  uncommon  ambition.  By  the  aid  of  such  a 
power,  skilfully  employed,  you  may  "  bridge  your  way"  over 
the  Hellespont  that  separates  State  legislation  from  that  of 
Congress  ;  and  you  may  do  so  for  pretty  much  the  same 
purpose  with  which  Xerxes  once  bridged  his  way  across  the 
Hellespont,  that  separates  Asia  from  Europe.  He  did  so,  in 
the  language  of  Milton,  "  the  liberties  of  Greece  to  yoke." 
You  may  do  so  for  the  analogous  purpose  of  subjugating  and 
reducing  the  sovereignties  of  States,  as  your  taste  or  conve 
nience  may  suggest,  and  fashioning  them  to  your  imperial 
will.  There  are  those  in  this  house  who  appear  to  think, 
and  I  doubt  not  sincerely,  that  the  particular  restraint  now 
under  consideration  is  wise,  and  benevolent,  and  good  :  wise 
as  respects  the  Union — good  as  respects  Missouri — benevo 
lent  as  respects  the  unhappy  victims  whom,  with  a  novel 
kindness,  it  would  incarcerate  in  the  South,  and  bless  by  de 
cay  and  extirpation. /Let  all  such  bewareJ.est  in  their  desire 
for  the  effect  whicn  they  believe  the  junction  will  produce, 
they  are  too  easily  satisfied  that  th^have  the  right  to  im 
pose  it./ The  moral  beauty  of  the  present  purpose,  or  even 
its  political  recommendations  (whatever  they  may  be),  can 
do  nothing  for  a  power  like  this,  which  claims  to  prescribe 
conditions  ad  libitum,  and  to  be  competent  to  this  purpose, 
beqause  it  is  competent  to  all.  This  restriction,  if  it  be  not 
smothered  in  its  birth,  will  be  but  a  small  part  of  the  pro 
geny  of  that  prolific  power.  It  teems  with  a  mighty  brood, 


300  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   TINKNEY. 

of  which  this  may  be  entitled  to  the  distinction  of  comeliness 
as  well  as  of  primogeniture.  The  rest  may  want  the  boasted 
loveliness  of  their  predecessor,  and  be  even  uglier  than 
"Lapland  witches." 

Perhaps,  Sir,  you  will  permit  me  to  remind  you  that  it 
is  almost  always  in  company  with  those  considerations  that 
interest  the  heart  in  some  way  or  other,  that  encroachment 
steals  into  the  world.  A  bad  purpose  throws  no  veil  over 
the  licenses  of  power.  It  leaves  them  to  be  seen  as  they  are. 
It  affords  them  no  protection  from  the  inquiring  eye  of 
jealousy.  The  danger  is  when  a  tremendous  discretion  like 
the  present  is  attempted  to  be  assumed,  as  on  this  occasion, 
in  the  names  of  pity,  of  religion,  of  national  honor  and 
national  prosperity  ;  when  encroachment  tricks  itself  out  in 
the  robes  of  piety,  or  humanity,  or  addresses  itself  to  pride 
of  country,  with  all  its  kindred  passions  and  motives.  It  is 
then  that  the  guardians  of  the  constitution  are  apt  to  slum 
ber  on  their  watch,  or,  if  awake,  to  mistake  for  lawful  rule 
some  pernicious  arrogation  of  power. 

I  would  not  discourage  authorized  legislation  upon  those 
kindly,  generous,  and  noble  feelings  which  Providence  has 
given  to  us  for  the  best  of  purposes  :  but  when  power  to  act 
is  under  discussion,  I  will  not  look  to  the  end  in  view,  lest  I 
should  become  indifferent  to  the  lawfulness  of  the  means. 
Let  us  discard  from  this  high  constitutional  question,  all 
those  extrinsic  considerations  which  have  been  forced  into 
its  discussion.  Let  us  endeavor  to  approach  it  with  a 
philosophic  impartiality  of  temper — with  a  sincere  desire  to 
ascertain  the  boundaries  of  our  authority,  and  a  deter 
mination  to  keep  our  wishes  in  subjection  to  our  allegiance 
to  the  constitution. 

Slavery,  we  are  told  in  many  a  pamphlet,  memorial,  and 
speech,  with  which  the  press  has  lately  groaned,  is  a  foul 
blot  upon  our  otherwise  immaculate  reputation.  Let  this 
be  conceded — yet  you  are  no  nearer  than  before  to  the  con- 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  301 

elusion  that  you  possess  power  which  may  deal  with  othei 
subjects  as  effectually  as  with  this.  Slavery,  we  are  further 
told,  with  some  pomp  of  metaphor,  is  a  canker  at  the  root 
of  all  that  is  excellent  in  this  republican  empire,  a  pestilent 
disease  that  is  snatching  the  youthful  bloom  from  its  cheek, 
prostrating  its  honor  and  withering  its  strength.  Be  it  so — 
yet  if  you  have  power  to  medicine  to  it  in  the  way  proposed, 
and  in  virtue  of  the  diploma  which  you  claim,  you  have  also 
power  in  the  distribution  of  your  political  alexipharmics  to 
present  the  deadliest  drugs  to  every  territory  that  would  be 
come  a  State,  and  bid  it  drink  or  remain  a  colony  for  ever. 
Slavery,  we  are  also  told,  is  now  "  rolling  onward  with  a  rapid 
tide  towards  the  boundless  regions  of  the  West,"  threatening 
to  doom  them  to  sterility  and  sorrow,  unless  some  potent 
voice  can  say  to  it — thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther. 
Slavery  engenders  pride  and  indolence  in  him  who  com 
mands,  and  inflicts  intellectual  and  moral  degradation  on 
him  who  serves.  Slavery,  in  fine,  is  unchristian  and  abom 
inable.  Sir,  I  shall  not  stop  to  deny  that  slavery  is  all  this 
and  more  ;  but  I  shall  not  think  myself  the  less  authorized 
to  deny  that  it  is  for  you  to  stay  the  course  of  this  dark  tor 
rent,  by  opposing  to  it  a  mound  raised  up  by  the  labors  of 
this  portentous  discretion  on  the  domain  of  others — a  mound 
which  you  cannot  erect  but  through  the  instrumentality  of  a 
trespass  of  no  ordinary  kind — not  the  comparatively  inno 
cent  trespass  that  beats  down  a  few  blades  of  grass  which 
the  first  kind  sun  or  the  next  refreshing  shower  may  cause 
to  spring  again,  but  that  which  levels  with  the  ground  the 
lordliest  trees  of  the  forest,  and  claims  immortality  for  the 
destruction  which  it  inflicts. 

il  shall  not,  I  am  sure,  be  told  that  I  exaggerate  this 
power.  It  has  been  admitted  here,  and  elsewhere,  that  I 
do  not.  But  I  want  no  such  concession.  It  is  manifest, 
that  as  a  discretionary  power  it  is  every  thing  or  nothing — 
that  its  head  is  in  the  clouds,  or  that  it  is  a  mere  figment  of 


302  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

enthusiastic  speculation — that  it  has  no  existence,  or  that  it 
is  an  alarming  vortex  ready  to  swallow  up  all  such  portions 
of  the  sovereignty  of  an  infant  State,  as  you  may  think  fit 
to  cast  into  it  as  preparatory  to  the  introduction  into  the 
Union  of  the  miserable  residue.  No  man  can  contradict  me 
when  I  say,  that  if  you  have  this  power,  you  may  squeeze 
down  a  new-born  sovereign  State  to  the  size  of  a  pigmy,  and 
then  taking  it  between  finger  and  thumb,  stick  it  into  some 
niche  of  the  Union,  and  still  continue  by  way  of  mockery  to 
call  it  a  State  in  the  sense  of  the  constitution.  You  may 
waste  it  to  a  shadow,  and  then  introduce  it  into  the  society 
of  flesh  and  blood,  an  object  of -scorn  and  derision.  You 
may  sweat  and  reduce  it  to  a*  thing  of  skin  and  bone,  and 
then  place  the  ominous  skeleton  beside  the  ruddy  and  health 
ful  members  of  the  Union,  that  it  may  have  leisure  to  mourn 
the  lamentable  difference  between  itself  and  its  companions, 
to  brood  over  its  disastrous  promotion,  and  to  seek  in  justifi 
able  discontent,  an  opportunity  for  separation,  and  insurrec 
tion,  and  rebellion.  What  may  you  not  do  by  dexterity  and 
perseverance  with  this  terrific  power  ?  You  may  give  to  a 
new  State,  in  the  form  of  terms  which  it  cannot  refuse,  (as 
I  shall  show  you  hereafter,)  a  statute  book  of  a  thousand  vol 
umes — providing  not  for  ordinary  cases  only,  but  even  for 
possibilities  ;  you  may  lay  the  yoke,  no  matter  whether  light 
or  heavy,  upon  the  necks  of  the  latest  posterity ;  you  may 
send  this  searching  power  into  every  hamlet  for  centuries  to 
come,  by  laws  enacted  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  and  regulat 
ing  all  those  dear  relations  of  domestic  concern,  which  be 
long  to  local  legislation,  and  which  even  local  legislation 
touches  with  a  delicate  and  sparing  hand.  This  is  the  first 
inroad.  But  will  it  be  the  last  ?  This  provision  is  but  a 
pioneer  for  others  of  a  more  desolating  aspect.  It  is  the  fatal 
bridge  of  which  Milton  speaks,  and  when  once  firmly  built, 
what  shall  hinder  you  to  pass  it  when  you  please,  for  the 
purpose  of  plundering  power  after  power  at  the  expense  of 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  303 

new  States,  as  you  will  still  continue  to  call  them,  and  rais 
ing  up  prospective  codes,  irrevocable  and  immortal,  which 
shall  leave  to  those  States  the  empty  shadows  of  domestic 
sovereignty,  and  convert  them  into  petty  pageants,  in  them 
selves  contemptible,  but  rendered  infinitely  more  so  by  the 
contrast  of  their  humble  faculties,  with  the  proud  and  ad 
mitted  pretensions  of  those  who,  having  doomed  them  to  the 
inferiority  of  vassals,  have  condescended  to  take  them  into 
their  society  and  under  their  protection  ?^ 

I  shall  be  told,  perhaps,  that  you  can  have  no  tempta 
tion  to  do  all,  or  any  part  of  this,  and,  moreover,  that  you 
can  do  nothing  of  yourselves,  or,  in  other  words,  without  the 
concurrence  of  the  new  State.  The  last  of  these  sugges 
tions  I  shall  examine  by  and  by.  To  the  first  I  answer,  that 
it  is  not  incumbent  upon  me  to  prove  that  this  discretion 
will  be  abused.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  prove  the  vastness  of 
the  power  as  an  inducement  to  make  us  pause  upon  it,  and 
to  inquire  with  attention,  whether  there  is  any  apartment  in 
the  constitution  large  enough  to  give  it  entertainment.  It 
is  more  than  enough  for  me  to  show  that  vast  as  is  this  power, 
it  is  with  reference  to  mere  territories  an  irresponsible  power. 
Power  is  irresponsible  when  it  acts  upon  those  who  are  de 
fenceless  against  it,  who  cannot  check  it,  or  contribute  to  check 
it,  in  its  exercise,  who  can  resist  it  only  by  force.  The  terri 
tory  of  Missouri  has  no  check  upon  this  power.  It  has  no  share 
in  the  government  of  the  Union.  In  this  body  it  has  no  repre 
sentative.  In  the  other  House  it  has,  by  courtesy,  an  agent, 
who  may  remonstrate,  but  cannot  vote.  That  such  an  irre 
sponsible  power  is  not  likely  to  be  abused,  who  will  undertake 
to  assert  ?  If  it  is  not,  u  Experience  is  a  cheat,  and  fact  a  liar. " 
The  power  which  England  claimed  over  the  colonies,  was  such 
a  power,  and  it  was  abused — and  hence  the  revolution.  Such 
a  power  is  always  perilous  to  those  who  wield  it,  as  well  as 
to  those  on  whom  it  is  exerted.  Oppression  is  but  another 
name  for  irresponsible  power,  if  history  is  to  be  trusted. 


304  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

The  free  spirit  of  our  constitution  and  of  our  people,  is 
no  assurance  against  the  propension  of  unbridled  power  to 
abuse,  when  it  acts  upon  colonial  dependents  rather  than 
upon  ourselves.  Free  States,  as  well  as  despots,  have  op 
pressed  those  whom  they  were  bound  to  foster — and  it  is  the 
nature  of  man  that  it  should  be  so.  The  love  of  power,  and 
the  desire  to  display  it  when  it  can  be  done  with  impunity, 
is  inherent  in  the  human  heart.  Turn  it  out  at  the  door, 
and  it  will  in  again  at  the  window*.  Power  is  displayed  in 
its  fullest  measure,  and  with  a  captivating  dignity,  by  re 
straints  and  conditions.  The  pruritas  leges  ferendi  is  an 
universal  disease  ;  and  conditions  are  laws  as  far  as  they  go. 
The  vanity  of  human  wisdom,  and  the  presumption  of  hu 
man  reason,  are  proverbial.  This  vanity  and  this  presump 
tion,  are  often  neither  reasonable  nor  wise.  Humanity,  too, 
sometimes  plays  fantastic  tricks  with  power.  Time,  moreover, 
is  fruitful  in  temptations  to  convert  discretionary  power  to 
all  sorts  of  purposes. 

Time,  that  withers  the  strength  of  man,  and  "  strews 
around  him  like  autumnal  leaves,  the  ruins  of  his  proudest 
monuments,"  produces  great  vicissitudes  in  modes  of  think 
ing  and  feeling.  It  brings  along  with  it,  in  its  progress, 
new  circumstances — new  combinations  and  modifications  of 
the  old — generating  new  views,  motives,  and  caprices — new 
fanaticisms  of  endless  variety — in  short,  new  every  thing. 
We  ourselves  are  always  changing — and  what  to-day  we 
have  but  a  small  desire  to  attempt,  to-morrow  becomes  the 
object  of  our  passionate  aspirations. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  enthusiasm,  moral,  religious,  or 
political,  or  a  compound  of  all  three  ; — and  it  is  wonderful 
what  it  will  attempt,  and  from  what  imperceptible  beginnings 
it  sometimes  rises  into  a  mighty  agent.  Rising  from  some 
obscure  or  unknown  source,  it  first  shows  itself  a  petty 
rivulet,  which  scarcely  murmurs  over  the  pebbles  that  ob 
struct  its  way — then  it  swells  into  a  fierce  torrent,  bearing 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  P1NKNEY.  305 

all  before  it — and  then  again,  like  some  mountain  stream, 
which  occasional  rains  have  precipitated  upon  the  valley,  it- 
sinks  once  more  into  a  rivulet,  and  finally  leaves  its  channel 
dry.  Such  a  thing  has  happened.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is 
now  happening.  It  would  not  become  me  to  say  so.  But  if 
it  should  occur,  woe  to  the  unlucky  territory  that  should  be 
struggling  to  make  its  way  into  the  Union  at  the  moment 
when  the  opposing  inundation  was  at  its  height,  and  at  the 
same  instant,  this  wide  Mediterranean  of  discretionary  pow 
ers,  which  it  seems  is  ours,  should  open  up  all  its  sluices,  and 
with  a  consentaneous  rush,  mingle  with  the  turbid  waters  of 
the  others. 

&&£#&#### 

"  New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into  this 
Union."  It  is  objected  that  the  word  "  may"  imports  power, 
not  obligation — a  right  to  decide — a  discretion  to  grant  or 
refuse. 

To  this  it  might  be  answered,,  that  power  is  duty  on 
many  occasions.  But  let  it  be  conceded  that  it  is  discre 
tionary.  What  consequence  follows  ?  A  power  to  refuse, 
in  a  case  like  this,  does  not  necessarily  involve  a  power  to 
exact  terms.  You  must  look  to  the  result,  which  is  the  de 
clared  object  of  the  power.  Whether  you  will  arrive  at  it, 
or  not,  may  depend  on  your  will ;  but  you  cannot  compro 
mise  with  the  result  intended  and  professed. 

What  then  is  the  professed  result  ?  To  admit  a  State 
into  this  Union. 

What  is  that  Union  ?  A  confederation  of  States,  equal 
in  sovereignty — capable  of  every  thing  which  the  constitu 
tion  does  not  forbid,  or  authorize  Congress  to  forbid.  It  is 
an  equal  Union,  between  parties  equally  sovereign.  They 
were  sovereign,  independently  of  the  Union.  The  object  of 
the  Union  was  common  protection  for  the  exercise  of  already 
existing  sovereignty.  The  parties  gave  up  a  portion  of  that 
sovereignty  to  insure  the  remainder.  As  far  as  they  gave  it 
20 


306  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

up,  by  the  common  compact,  they  have  ceased  to  be  sove 
reign.  The  Union  provides  the  means  of  defending  the  resi 
due  :  and  it  is  into  that  Union  that  a  new  State  is  to  come. 
By  acceding  to  it,  the  new  State  is  placed  on  the  same  foot 
ing  with  the  original  States.  It  accedes  for  the  same 
purpose,  i.  e.,  protection  for  its  unsurrendered  sovereignty. 
If  it  comes  in  shorn  of  its  beams — crippled  and  disparaged 
beyond  the  original  States,  it  is  not  into  the  original  Union 
that  it  comes.  For  it  is  a  different  sort  of  Union.  The 
first  was  Union  inter  pares  :  This  is  a  Union  between 
disparates — between  giants  and  a  dwarf — between  power  and 
feebleness — between  full  proportioned  sovereignties,  and  a 
miserable  image  of  power — a  thing  which  that  very  Union 
has  shrunk  and  shrivelled  from  its  just  size,  instead  of  pre 
serving  it  in  its  true  dimensions. 

It  is  into  "  this  Union,"  i.  e.,  the  Union  of  the  Fede 
ral  Constitution,  that  you  are  to  admit,  or  refuse  to  admit. 
You  can  admit  into  no  other.  You  cannot  make  the  Union, 
as  to  the  new  State,  what  it  is  not  as  to  the  old  ;  for  then  it 
is  not  this  Union  that  you  open  for  the  entrance  of  a  new 
party.  If  you  make  it  enter  into  a  new  and  additional  com 
pact,  is  it  any  longer  the  same  Union  ? 

We  are  told  that  admitting  a  State  into  the  Union  is 
a  compact.  Yes — but  what  sort  of  a  compact  ?  A  compact 
that  it  shall  be  a  member  of  the  Union,  as  the  constitution 
has  made  it.  You  cannot  new  fashion  it.  You  may  make 
a  compact  to  admit,  but  when  admitted,  the  original  com 
pact  prevails.  The  Union  is  a  compact,  with  a  provision  of 
political  power  and  agents  for  the  accomplishment  of  its  ob 
jects.  Vary  that  compact  as  to  a  new  State — give  new 
energy  to  that  political  power,  so  as  to  make  it  act  with 
more  force  upon  a  new  State  than  upon  the  old — make  the 
will  of  those  agents  more  effectually  the  arbiter  of  the  fate 
of  a  new  State  than  of  the  old,  and  it  may  be  confidently 
said  that  the  new  State  has  not  entered  into  this  Union,  but 


LIFE   OF  WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  307 

into  another  Union.     How  far  the  Union  has  heen  varied  is 
another  question.     But  that  it  has  "been  varied  is  clear. 

If  I  am  told,  that  by  the  bill  relative  to  Missouri,  you  do 
not  legislate  upon  a  new  State — I  answer  that  you  do  ;  and 
I  answer  further,  that  it  is  immaterial  whether  you  do  or  not. 
But  it  is  upon  Missouri,  as  a  State,  that  your  terms  and 
conditions  are  to  act.  Until  Missouri  is  a  State,  the  terms 
and  conditions  are  nothing.  You  legislate  in  the  shape  of 
terms  and  conditions,  prospectively  ;  and  you  so  legislate 
upon  it,  that  when  it  comes  into  the  Union  it  is  to  be  bound 
by  a  contract  degrading  and  diminishing  its  sovereignty, 
and  is  to  be  stripped  of  rights  which  the  original  parties  to 
the  Union  did  not  consent  to  abandon,  and  which  that 
Union  (so  far  as  depends  upon  it)  takes  under  its  protection 
and  guarantee. 

Is  the  right  to  hold  slaves  a  right  which  Massachusetts 
enjoys  ?  If  it  is,  Massachusetts  is  under  this  Union  in  a  dif 
ferent  character  from  Missouri.  The  compact  of  Union  for 
it,  is  different  from  the  same  compact  of  Union  for  Missouri. 
The  power  of  Congress  is  different — every  thing  which  de 
pends  upon  the  Union  is,  in  that  respect,  different. 

yBut  it  is  immaterial  whether  you  legislate  for  Missouri  as 
a  State  or  not.  The  effect  of  your  legislation  is  to  bring  it 
into  the  Union  with  a  portion  of  its  sovereignty  taken  away. 

But  it  is  a  State  which  you  are  to  admit.  What  is  a 
State  in  the  sense  of  the  constitution  ?  It  is  not  a  State  in 
the  general — but  a  State  as  you  find  it  in  the  constitution. 
A  State,  generally,  is  a  body  politic  or  independent  political 
society  of  men.  But  the  State  which  you  are  to  admit  must 
be  more  or  less  than  this  political  entity.  What  must  it  be  ? 
Ask  the  constitution.  It  shows  what  it  means  by  a  State 
by  reference  to  the  parties  to  it.  It  must  be  such  a  State 
as  Massachusetts,  Virginia,  and  the  other  members  of  the 
American  confederacy — a  State  with  full  sovereignty,  except 
as  the  constitution  restricts  it^ 


308  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY, 

It  is  said  that  the  word  may  ncessarily  implies  the  right 
of  prescribing  the  terms  of  admission.  Those  who  maintain 
this  are  aware  that  there  are  no  express  words  (such  as  upon 
such  terms  and  conditions  as  Congress  shall  think  fit))  words 
which  it  was  natural  to  expect  to  find  in  the  constitution,  if 
the  effect  contended  for  were  meant.  They  put  it,  there 
fore,  on  the  word  may,  and  on  that  alone. 

Give  to  that  word  all  the  force  you  please — what  does  it 
import  ?  That  Congress  is  not  bound  to  admit  a  new  State 
into  this  Union.  Be  it  so  for  argument's  sake.  Does  it 
follow  that  when  you  consent  to  admit  into  this  Union  a  new 
State,  you  can  make  it  less  in  sovereign  power  than  the  ori 
ginal  parties  to  that  Union — that  you  can  make  the  Union 
as  to  it  what  it  is  not  as  to  them — that  you  can  fashion  it  to 
your  liking  by  compelling  it  to  purchase  admission  into  an 
Union  by  sacrificing  a  portion  of  that  power  which  it  is  the 
sole  purpose  of  the  Union  to  maintain  in  all  the  plenitude 
which  the  Union  itself  does  not  impair  ?  Does  it  follow, 
that  you  can  force  upon  it  an  additional  compact  not  found 
in  the  compact  of  Union?  that  you  can  make  it  come  into 
the  Union  less  a  State,  in  regard  to  sovereign  power,  than  its 
fellows  in  that  Union?  that  you  can  cripple  its  legislative 
competency  (beyond  the  constitution  which  is  the  pact  of 
Union,  to  which  you  make  it  a  party  as  if  it  had  been  origi 
nally  a  party  to  it),  by  what  you  choose  to  call  a  condition^ 
but  which,  whatever  it  may  be  called,  brings  the  new  gov 
ernment  into  the  Union  under  new  obligations  to  it,  and 
with  disparaged  power  to  be  protected  by  it  ? 

In  a  word,  the  whole  amount  of  the  argument  on  the 
other  side,  is — that  you  may  refuse  to  admit  a  new  State, 
and  that  therefore,  if  you  admit,  you  may  prescribe  the 
terms. 

The  answer  to  that  argument  is — that  even  if  you  can  re 
fuse,  you  can  prescribe  no  terms  which  are  inconsistent  with 
the  act  you  are  to  do.  You  can  prescribe  no  condition 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  309 

which,  if  carried  into  effect,  would  make  the  new  State 
jless  a  sovereign  State  than,  under  the  Union  as  it  stands,  it 
would  he.  You  can  prescribe  no  terms  which  will  make  the 
compact  of  Union  between  it  and  the  original  States  essen 
tially  different  from  that  compact  among  the  original  States. 
You  may  admit,  or  refuse  to  admit :  but  if  you  admit,  you 
must  admit  a  State  in  the  sense  of  the  constitution — a  State 
with  all  such  sovereignty  as  belongs  to  the  original  parties  : 
and  it  must  be  into  this  Union  that  you  are  to  admit  it,  not 
into  a  Union  of  your  own  dictating,  formed  out  of  the  exist 
ing  Union  by  qualifications  and  new  compacts,  altering  its 
character  and  effect,  and  making  it  fall  short  of  its  protect 
ing  energy  in  reference  to  the  new  State,  whilst  it  acquires 
an  energy  of  another  sort — the  energy  of  restraint  and  de 
struction. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  show,  that  even  if  you  have  a 
discretion  to  refuse  to  admit — you  have  no  discretion,  if  you 
are  willing  to  admit,  to  insist  upon  any  terms  that  impair 
the  sovereignty  of  the  admitted  State  as  it  would  otherwise 
stand  in  the  Union  by  the  constitution  which  receives  it  into 
its  bosom.  To  admit  or  not,  is  for  you  to  decide.  Admis 
sion  once  conceded,  it  follows  as  a  corollary  that  you  must 
take  the  new  State  as  an  equal  companion  with  its  fellows — 
that  you  cannot  recast  or  new  model  the  Union  pro  hac  vice 
— but  that  you  must  receive  it  into  the  actual  Union,  and 
recognize  it  as  a  parcener  in  the  common  inheritance,  with 
out  any  other  shackles  than  the  rest  have,  by  the  constitu 
tion,  submitted  to  bear — without  any  other  extinction  of 
power  than  is  the  work  of  the  constitution  acting  indiffer 
ently  upon  all. 

I  may  be  told,  perhaps,  that  the  restriction,  in  this  case, 
is  the  act  of  Missouri  itself — that  your  law  is  nothing  with 
out  its  consent,  and  derives  its  efficacy  from  that  alone. 

I  shall  have  a  more  suitable  occasion  to  speak  on  this 
topic  hereafter,  when  I  come  to  consider  the  treaty  which 


310  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

ceded  Louisiana  to  the  United  States.  But  I  will  say  a  few 
words  upon  it  now,  of  a  more  general  application  than  it  will, 
in  that  branch  of  the  argument,  be  necessary  to  use. 

A  territory  cannot  surrender  to  Congress  by  anticipa 
tion,  the  whole,  or  a  part,  of  the  sovereign  power,  which, 
by  the  constitution  of  the  Union,  will  belong  to  it  when  it 
becomes  a  State  and  a  member  of  the  Union.  Its  consent 
is,  therefore,  nothing.  It  is  in  no  situation  to  make  this  sur 
render.  It  is  under  the  government  of  Congress  ;  if  it  can 
barter  away  a  part  of  its  sovereignty,  by  anticipation,  it  can 
do  so  as  to  the  whole.  For  where  will  you  stop  ?  If  it  does 
not  cease  to  be  a  State,  in  the  sense  of  the  constitution,  with 
only  a  certain  portion  of  sovereign  power,  what  other  smaller 
portion  will  have  that  effect  ?  If  you  depart  from  the 
standard  of  the  constitution,  i.  e.,  the  quantity  of  domestic 
sovereignty  left  in  the  first  contracting  States,  and  secured 
by  the  original  compact  of  Union,  where  will  you  get  ano 
ther  standard  ?  Consent  is  no  standard, — for  consent  may 
be  gained  to  a  surrender  of  all. 

No  State  or  Territory,  in  order  to  become  a  State,  can 
alienate  or  surrender  any  portion  of  its  sovereignty  to  the 
Union,  or  to  a  sister  State,  or  to  a  foreign  nation.  It  is  un 
der  an  incapacity  to  disqualify  itself  for  all  the  purposes  of 
government  left  to  it  in  the  constitution,  by  stripping  itself 
of  attributes  which  arise  from  the  natural  equality  of  States, 
and  which  the  constitution  recognizes,  not  only  because  it 
does  not  deny  them,  but  presumes  them  to  remain  as  they 
exist  by  the  law  of  nature  and  nations.  Inequality  in  the 
sovereignty  of  states  is  unnatural,  and  repugnant  to  all  the 
principles  of  that  law.  Hence  we  find  it  laid  down  by  the 
text  writers  on  public  law,  that  "  Nature  has  established  a 
perfect  equality  of  rights  between  independent  nations  " — 
and  that  "  Whatever  the  quality  of  a  free  sovereign  nation 
gives  to  one,  it  gives  to  another."  *  The  constitution  of  the 

*  Vattel,  Droit  des  Gens,  liv.  2,  c.  3.  s.  36. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  311 

United  States  proceeds  upon  the  truth  of  this  doctrine.  It 
takes  the  States  as  it  finds  them,  FREE  AND  SOVEREIGN  ALIKE 
BY  NATURE.  It  receives  from  them  portions  of  their  power 
for  the  general  good,  and  provides  for  the  exercise  of  it  by 
organized  political  bodies.  It  diminishes  the  individual 
sovereignty  of  each,  and  transfers,  what  it  subtracts,  to  the 
government  which  it  creates  :  it  takes  from  all  alike,  and 
leaves  them  relatively  to  each  other  equal  in  sovereign  power. 
The  honorable  gentleman  from  New- York  has  put  the 
constitutional  argument  altogether  upon  the  clause  relative 
to  admission  of  new  States  into  the  Union.  He  does  not 
pretend  that  you  can  find  the  power  to  restrain,  in  any  ex 
tent,  elsewhere.  It  follows  that  it  is  not  a  particular  power 
to  impose  this  restriction,  but  a  power  to  impose  restrictions 
ad  libitum.  It  is  competent  to  this,  because  it  is  competent 
to  every  thing.  But  he  denies  that  there  can  be  any  power 
in  man  to  hold  in  slavery  his  fellow-creature,  and  argues, 
therefore,  that  the  prohibition  is  no  restraint  at  all,  since  it 
does  not  interfere  with  the  sovereign  powers  of  Missouri. 

%  %  V  V  #  V  # 

One  of  the  most  signal  errors  with  which  the  argument 
on  the  other  side  has  abounded,  is  this  of  considering  the  pro 
posed  restriction  as  if  levelled  at  the  introduction  or  estab 
lishment  of  slavery.  And  hence  the  vehement  declamation, 
which,  among  other  things,  has  informed  us  that  slavery  orig 
inated  in  fraud  or  violence. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  restriction  has  no  relation,  real  or 
pretended,  to  the  right  of  making  slaves  of  those  who  are  free, 
or  of  introducing  slavery  where  it  does  not  already  exist.  It 
applies  to  those  who  are  admitted  to  be  already  slaves,  and 
who  (with  their  posterity)  would  continue  to  be  slaves  if  they 
should  remain  where  they  are  at  present ;  and  to  a  place 
where  slavery  already  exists  by  the  local  law.  Their  civil 
condition  will  not  be  altered  by  their  removal  from  Virginia, 
or  Carolina,  to  Missouri.  They  will  not  be  more  slaves  than 


312  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

they  now  are.  Their  abode,  indeed,  will  be  different,  but 
their  bondage  the  same.  Their  numbers  may  possibly  be 
augmented  by  the  diffusion,  and  I  think  they  will.  But  this 
can  only  happen  because  their  hardships  will  be  mitigated, 
and  their  comforts  increased.  The  checks  to  population, 
which  exist  in  the  older  States  will  be  diminished.  The 
restriction,  therefore,  does  not  prevent  the  establishment  of 
slavery,  either  with  reference  to  persons  or  place  ;  but  simply 
inhibits  the  removal  from  place  to  place  (the  law  in  each 
being  the  same)  of  a  slave,  or  make  his  emancipation  the 
consequence  of  that  removal.  It  acts  professedly  merely  on 
slavery  as  it  exists,  and  thus  acting  restrains  its  present  law 
ful  effects.  That  slavery,  like  many  other  human  institu 
tions,  originated  in  fraud  or  violence,  may  be  conceded :  but, 
however  it  originated,  it  is  established  among  us,  and  no 
man  seeks  a  further  establishment  of  it  by  new  importations 
of  freemen  to  be  converted  into  slaves.  On  the  contrary,  all 
are  anxious  to  mitigate  its  evils  by  all  the  means  within  the 
reach  of  the  appropriate  authority,  the  domestic  legislatures 
of  the  different  States. 

It  can  be  nothing  to  the  purpose  of  this  argument,  there 
fore,  as  the  gentlemen  themselves  have  shaped  it,  to  inquire 
what  was  the  origin  of  slavery.  What  is  it  now,  and  who 
are  they  that  endeavor  to  innovate  upon  what  it  now  is  (the 
advocates  of  this  restriction  who  desire  change  by  unconsti 
tutional  means,  or  its  opponents  who  desire  to  leave  the 
whole  matter  to  local  regulation),  are  the  only  questions 
worthy  of  attention. 

Sir,  if  we  too  closely  look  to  the  rise  and  progress  of  long 
sanctioned  establishments  and  unquestioned  rights,  we  may 
discover  other  subjects  than  that  of  slavery,  with  which  fraud 
and  violence  may  claim  a  fearful  connection,  and  over  which 
it  may  be  our  interest  to  throw  the  mantle  of  oblivion.  What 
was  the  settlement  of  our  ancestors  in  this  country  but  an 
invasion  of  the  rights  of  the  barbarians  who  inhabited  it  ? 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  313 

That  settlement,  with  slight  exceptions,  was  effected  by  the 
slaughter  of  those  who  did  no  more  than  defend  their  native 
land  against  the  intruders  of  Europe,  or  by  unequal  compacts 
and  purchases,  in  which  feebleness  and  ignorance  had  to  deal 
with  power  and  cunning.  The  savages  who  once  built  their 
huts  where  this  proud  Capitol,  rising  from  its  recent  ashes, 
exemplifies  the  sovereignty  of  the  American  people,  were 
swept  away  by  the  injustice  of  our  fathers,  and  their  domain 
usurped  by  force,  or  obtained  by  artifices  yet  more  criminal. 
Our  continent  was  full  of  those  aboriginal  inhabitants. 
Where  are  they  or  their  descendants  ?  Either  "  with  years 
beyond  the  flood,"  or  driven  back  by  the  swelling  tide  of  our 
population  from  the  borders  of  the  Atlantic  to  the  deserts  of 
the  West.  You  follow  still  the  miserable  remnants,  and 
make  contracts  with  them  that  seal  their  ruin.  You  pur 
chase  their  lands,  of  which  they  know  not  the  value,  in  order 
that  you  may  sell  them  to  advantage,  increase  your  treasure, 
and  enlarge  your  empire.  Yet  further — you  pursue  as  they 
retire ;  and  they  must  continue  to  retire,  until  the  Pacific 
shall  stay  their  retreat,  and  compel  them  to  pass  away  as 
a  dream.  Will  you  recur  to  those  scenes  of  various  iniquity 
for  any  other  purpose  than  to  regret  and  lament  them  ? 
Will  you  pry  into  them,  with  a  view  to  shake  and  impair 
your  rights  of  property  and  dominion  ? 

But  the  broad  denial  of  the  sovereign  right  of  Missouri, 
if  it  shall  become  a  sovereign  State,  to  recognize  slavery  by 
its  laws,  is  rested  upon  a  variety  of  grounds,  all  of  which  I 
will  examine. 

It  is  an  extraordinary  fact,  that  they  who  urge  this  denial 
with  such  ardent  zeal,  stop  short  of  it  in  their  conduct. 
/There  are  now  slaves  in  Missouri  whom  they  do  not  insist 
upon  delivering  from  their  chains.  Yet  if  it  is  incompetent 
to  sovereign  powe^to  continue  slavery  in  Missouri,  in  respect 
of  slaves  who  may  yet  be  carried  thither,  show  me  the  power 
that  can  continue  it  in  respect  of  slaves  who  are  there  already. 


314  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

Missouri  is  out  of  the  old  limits  of  the  Union,  and  beyond 
those  limits,  it  is  said,  we  can  give  no  countenance  to  slavery, 
if  we  can  countenance  or  tolerate  it  any  where.  It  is  plain, 
that  there  can  be  no  slaves  beyond  the  Mississippi  at  this 
moment  but  in  virtue  of  some  power  to  make  or  keep  them 
so.  What  sort  of  power  was  it  that  has  made  or  kept  them 
so  ?  Sovereign  power  it  could  not  be,  according  to  the 
honorable  gentlemen  from  Pennsylvania  and  New  Hamp 
shire  :  *  and  if  sovereign  power  is  unequal  to  such  a  purpose, 
less  than  sovereign  power  is  yet  more  unequal  to  it.  The 
laws  of  Spain  and  France  could  do  nothing — the  laws  of  the 
territorial  government  of  Missouri  could  do  nothing  towards 
such  a  result,  if  it  be  a  result  which  no  laws,  in  other  words, 
no  sovereignty,  could  accomplish.  The  treaty  of  1803  could 
do  no  more,  in  this  view,  than  the  laws  of  France,  or  Spain, 
or  the  territorial  government  of  Missouri.  A  treaty  is  an  act 
of  sovereign  power,  taking  the  shape  of  a  compact  between  the 
parties  to  it ;  and  that  which  sovereign  power  cannot  reach  at 
all,  it  cannot  reach  by  a  treaty.  Those  who  are  now  held  in 
bondage,  therefore,  in  Missouri,  and  their  issue,  are  entitled  to 
be  free,  if  there  be  any  truth  in  the  doctrine  of  the  honorable 
gentlemen  ;  and  if  the  proposed  restriction  leaves  all  such  in 
slavery,  it  thus  discredits  the  very  foundation  on  which  it  re 
poses.  To  be  inconsistent  is  the  fate  of  false  principles — but 
this  inconsistency  is  the  more  to  be  remarked,  since  it  cannot 
be  referred  to  mere  considerations  of  policy,  without  admit 
ting  that  such  considerations  may  be  preferred  (without  a 
crime)  to  what  is  deemed  a  paramount  and  indispensable 
duty. 

It  is  here,  too,  that  I  must  be  permitted  to  observe,  that 
the  honorable  gentlemen  have  taken  great  pains  to  show 
that  this  restriction  is  a  mere  work  of  supererogation  by  the 
principal  argument  on  which  they  rest  the^proof  of  its  pro 
priety.  Missouri,  it  is  said,  can  have  no  power  to  do  what 

*  Mr.  Roberts,  Mr.  Lowrie,  and  Mr.  ])rril. 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  315 

the  restriction  would  prevent.  It  would  be  void,  therefore, 
without  the  restriction.  Why  then,  I  ask,  is  the  restriction 
insisted  upon  ?  Restraint  implies  that  there  is  something 
to  be  restrained  :  But  the  gentlemen  justify  the  restraint 
by  showing  that  there  is  nothing  upon  which  it  can  operate  ! 
They  demonstrate  the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  restraint,  by 
demonstrating  that  with  or  without  restraint,  the  subject  is 
in  the  same  predicament.  This  is  to  combat  with  a  man 
of  straw,  and  to  put  fetters  upon  a  shadow. 

The  gentlemen  must,  therefore,  abandon  either  their  doc 
trine  or  their  restriction,  their  argument  or  their  object,  for 
they  are  directly  in  conflict,  and  reciprocally  destroy  each  other. 
It  is  evident,  that  they  will  not  abandon  their  object,  and  of 
course,  I  must  believe,  that  they  hold  their  argument  in  as 
little  real  estimation  as  I  myself  do.  The  gentlemen  can 
scarcely  be  sincere  believers  in  their  own  principle.  They 
have  apprehensions,  which  they  endeavor  to  conceal,  that 
Missouri,  as  a  State,  will  have  power  to  continue  slavery 
within  its  limits ;  and  if  they  will  not  be  offended,  I  will 
venture  to  compare  them,  in  this  particular,  with  the  duelist 
in  Sheridan's  comedy  of  the  Eivals,  who  affecting  to  have 
no  fear  whatever  of  his  adversary,  is,  nevertheless,  careful  to 
admonish  Sir  Lucius  to  hold  him  fast. 

Let  us  take  it  for  granted,  however,  that  they  are  in 
earnest  in  their  doctrine,  and  that  it  is  very  necessary  to  im 
pose  what  they  prove  to  be  an  unnecessary  restraint :  how  do 
they  support  that  doctrine  ? 

The  honorable  gentleman  on  the  other  side':?  has  told  us, 
as  a  proof  of  his  great  position  (that  man  cannot  enslave  his 
fellow  man,  in  which  is  implied  that  all  laws  upholding  slave 
ry  are  absolute  nullities),  that  the  nations  of  antiquity  as 
well  as  of  modern  times  have  concurred  in  laying  down  that 
position  as  incontrovertible. 

^  *Mr.  King. 


316  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

He  refers  us  in  the  first  place  to  the  Koman  law,  in 
which  he  finds  it  laid  down  as  a  maxim  :  Jure  naturaU  om- 
nes  homines  ab  initio  liberi  nascebantur.  From  the  manner 
in  which  this  maxim  was  pressed  upon  us,  it  would  not  read 
ily  have  been  conjectured  that  the  honorable  gentleman  who 
used  it  had  borrowed  it  from  a  slave-holding  empire,  and  still 
less  from  a  book  of  the  Institutes  of  Justinian,  which  treats 
of  slavery,  and  justifies,  and  regulates  it.  Had  he  given  us 
the  context,  we  should  have  had  the  modifications  of  which 
the  abstract  doctrine  was  in  the  judgment  of  the  Koman  law 
susceptible.  We  should  have  had  an  explanation  of  the 
competency  of  that  law,  to  convert,  whether  justly  or  un 
justly,  freedom  into  servitude,  and  to  maintain  the  right  of 
a  master  to  the  service  and  obedience  of  his  slave. 

The  honorable  gentleman  might  also  have  gone  to  Greece 
for  a  similar  maxim  and  a  similar  commentary,  speculative 
and  practical. 

He  next  refers  us  to  Magna  Charta.  I  am  somewhat  famil 
iar  with  Magna  Charta,  and  I  am  confident  that  it  contains  no 
such  maxim  as  the  honorable  gentleman  thinks  he  has  discov 
ered  in  it.  The  great  charter  was  extorted  from  John,  and 
his  feeble  son  and  successor,  by  haughty  slave-holding  barons, 
who  thought  only  of  themselves  and  the  commons  of  Eng 
land  (then  inconsiderable),  whom  they  wished  to  enlist  in 
their  efforts  against  the  crown.  There  is  not  in  it  a  single 
word  which  condemns  civil  slavery.  Freemen  only  are  the  ob 
jects  of  its  protecting  care,  "Nullus  liber  homo,"  is  its 
phraseology.  The  serfs,  who  were  chained  to  the  soil — the 
villeins  regardant  and  in  gross,  were  left  as  it  found  them. 
All  England  was  then  full  of  slaves,  whose  posterity  would 
by  law  remain  slaves  as  with  us,  except  only  that  the  issue 
followed  the  condition  of  the  father  instead  of  the  mother. 
The  rule  was  "  Partus  sequitur  patrem  " — a  rule  more  favor 
able,  undoubtedly,  from  the  very  precariousness  of  its  appli 
cation,  to  the  gradual  extinction  of  slavery,^an  ours,  which 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  317 

has  been  drawn  from  the  Koman  law,  and  is  of  sure  and  un 
avoidable  effect. 

Still  less  has  the  Petition  of  Right,  presented  to  Charles 
I.,  by  the  Long  Parliament,  to  do  with  the  subject  of  civil 
slavery.  It  looked  merely,  as  Magna  Charta  had  not  done 
before  it,  to  the  freedom  of  England — and  sought  only  to 
protect  them  against  royal  prerogative  and  the  encroaching 
spirit  of  the  Stewarts. 

As  to  the  Bill  of  Rights,  enacted  by  the  Convention  Par 
liament  of  1688,  it  is  almost  a  duplicate  of  the  Petition  of 
Eight,  and  arose  out  of  the  recollection  of  that  political  ty 
ranny  from  which  the  nation  had  just  escaped,  and  the  re 
currence  of  which  it  was  intended  to  prevent.  It  contains 
no  abstract  principles.  It  deals  only  with  practical  checks 
upon  the  power  of  the  monarch,  and  in  safeguards  for  insti 
tutions  essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  public  liberty. 
That  it  was  not  designed  to  anathematize  civil  slavery  may 
be  taken  for  granted,  since  at  that  epoch  and  long  afterwards 
the  English  government  inundated  its  foreign  plantations 
with  slaves,  and  supplied  other  nations  with  them  as  mer 
chandise,  under  the  sanction  of  solemn  treaties  negotiated 
for  that  purpose.  And  here  I  cannot  forbear  to  remark  that 
we  owe  it  to  that  same  government,  when  it  stood  towards 
us  in  the  relation  of  parent  to  child,  that  involuntary  servi 
tude  exists  in  our  land,  and  that  we  are  now  deliberating 
whether  the  prerogative  of  correcting  its  evils  belongs  to  the 
national  or  the  State  governments.  In  the  early  periods  of 
our  colonial  history  every  thing  was  done  by  the  mother 
country  to  encourage  the  importation  of  slaves  into  North 
America,  and  the  measures  which  were  adopted  by  the  Colo 
nial  Assemblies  to  prohibit  it,  were  uniformly  negatived  by 
the  crown.  It  is  not  therefore  our  fault,  nor  the  fault  of  our 
ancestors,  that  this  calamity  has  been  entailed  upon  us  ;  and 
notwithstanding  the  ostentation  with  which  the  loitering  ab 
olition  of  the  slave  trade  by  the  British  Parliament  has  been 


318  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

vaunted,  the  principal  consideration  which  at  last  reconciled 
it  to  that  measure  was,  that  by  suitable  care,  the  slave  pop 
ulation  in  their  West  India  islands  (already  fully  stocked) 
might  be  kept  up  and  even  increased  without  the  aid  of  im 
portation.  In  a  word,  it  was  cold  calculations  of  interest, 
and  not  the  suggestions  of  humanity,  or  a  respect  for  the 
philanthropic  principles  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  which  produced 
their  tardy  abandonment  of  that  abominable  traffic. 

Of  the  Declaration  of  our  Independence,  which  has  also 
been  quoted  in  support  of  the  perilous  doctrines  now  urged 
upon  us,  I  need  not  now  speak  at  large.  I  have  shown  on  a 
former  occasion  how  idle  it  is  to  rely  upon  that  instrument 
for  such  a  purpose,  and  will  not  fatigue  you  by  mere  repe 
tition.  The  self-evident  truths  announced  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  are  not  truths  at  all,  if  taken  literally ; 
and  the  practical  conclusions  contained  in  the  same  passage 
of  that  Declaration  prove  that  they  were  never  designed  to 
be  so  received. 

The  Articles  of  Confederation  contain  nothing  on  the 
subject ;  whilst  the  actual  constitution  recognizes  the  legal 
existence  of  slavery  by  various  provisions.  The  power  of 
prohibiting  the  slave  trade  is  involved  in  that  of  regulating 
commerce,  but  this  is  coupled  with  an  express  inhibition  to 
the  exercise  of  it  for  twenty  years.  How  then  can  that  con 
stitution  which  expressly  permits  the  importation  of  slaves, 
authorize  the  national  government  to  set  on  foot  a  crusade 
against  slavery  ? 

The  clause  respecting  fugitive  slaves  is  affirmative  and 
active  in  its  effects.  It  is  a  direct  sanction  and  positive  pro 
tection  of  the  right  of  the  master  to  the  services  of  his  slave 
as  derived  under  the  local  laws  of  the  State.  The  phrase 
ology  in  which  it  is  wrapped  up  still  leaves  the  intention  flear, 
and  the  words  "  persons  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State 
under  the  laws  thereof,"  have  always  been  interpreted  to  ex 
tend  to  the  case  of  slaves,  in  the  various  acts  of  Congress 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  319 

which  have  been  passed  to  give  efficacy  to  the  provision,  and 
in  the  judicial  application  of  those  laws.  So  also  in  the  clause 
prescribing  the  ratio  of  representation — the  phrase,  "  three- 
fifths  of  all  other  persons/'  is  equivalent  to  slaves.,  or  it 
means  nothing.  And  yet  we  are  told  that  those  who  are  act 
ing  under  a  constitution  which  sanctions  the  existence  of 
slavery  in  those  States  which  choose  to  tolerate  it,  are  at  lib 
erty  to  hold  that  no  law  can  sanction  its  existence  ! 

It  is  idle  to  make  the  rightfulness  of  an  act  the  measure 
of  sovereign  power.  The  distinction  between  sovereign  pow 
er  and  the  moral  right  to  exercise  it,  has  always  been  recog 
nized.  All  political  power  may  be  abused,  but  is  it  to  stop 
where  abuse  may  begin  ?  The  power  of  declaring  war  is  a 
power  of  vast  capacity  for  mischief,  and  capable  of  inflicting 
the  most  wide-spread  desolation.  But  it  is  given  to  Con 
gress  without  stint  and  without  measure.  Is  a  citizen,  or 
are  the  courts  of  justice  to  inquire  whether  that,  or  any  other 
law,  is  just,  before  they  obey  or  execute  it  ?  And  are  there 
any  degrees  of  injustice  which  will  withdraw  from  sovereign 
power  the  capacity  of  making  a  given  law  ? 

But  sovereignty  is  said  to  be  deputed  power.  Deputed 
— by  whom  ?  By  the  people,  because  the  power  is  theirs. 
And  if  it  be  theirs,  does  not  the  restriction  take  it  away  ? 
Examine  the  constitution  of  the  Union,  and  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  people  of  the  States  are  regarded  as  well  as  the 
States  themselves.  The  constitution  was  made  by  the  peo 
ple,  and  ratified  by  the  people. 

Is  it  fit,  then,  to  hold  that  all  the  sovereignty  of  a  State 
is  in  the  government  of  the  State  ?  So  much  is  there  as 
the  people  grant :  and  the  people  can  take  it  away,  or  give 
more,  or  new  model  what  they  have  already  granted.  It  is 
this  right  which  the  proposed  restriction  takes  from  Missouri. 
You  give  them  an  immortal  constitution,  depending  on  your 
will,  not  on  theirs.  The  people  and  their  posterity  are  to  be 
bound  for  ever  by  this  restriction  ;  and  upon  the  same  prin- 


320  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

ciple  any  other  restriction  may  be  imposed.  Where  then  is 
their  power  to  change  the  constitution,  and  tt>  devolve  new 
sovereignty  upon  the  State  government  ?  You  limit  their 
sovereign  capacity  to  do  it ;  and  when  you  talk  of  a  State, 
you  mean  the  people,  as  well  as  the  government.  The  people 
are  the  source  of  all  power — you  dry  up  that  source.  They 
are  the  reservoir — you  take  out  of  it  what  suits  you. 

It  is  said  that  this  government  is  a  government  of  depu 
ted  powers.  So  is  every  government — and  what  power  is 
not  deputed  remains.  But  the  people  of  the  United  States 
can  give  it  more  if  they  please,  as  the  people  of  each  State 
can  do  in  respect  to  its  own  government.  And  here  it  is 
well  to  remember,  that  this  is  a  government  of  enumerated, 
as  well  as  deputed  powers  ;  and  to  examine  the  clause  as  to 
the  admission  of  new  States,  with  that  principle  in  view. 
Now  assume  that  it  is  a  part  of  the  sovereign  power  of  the 
people  of  Missouri  to  continue  slavery,  and  to  devolve  that 
power  upon  its  government — and  then  to  take  it  away — and 
then  to  give  it  again.  The  government  is  their  creature — 
the  means  of  exercising  their  sovereignty,  and  they  can  vary 
those  means  at  their  pleasure.  Independently  of  the  Union, 
their  power  would  be  unlimited.  By  coming  into  the 
Union,  they  part 'with  some  of  it,  and  are  thus  less  sov 
ereign. 

/Let  us  then  see  whether  they  part  with  this  power. 
If  they  have  parted  with  this  portion  of  sovereign  power, 
iu  must  be  under  that  clause  of  the  national  constitution 
which  gives  to  Congress  "  power  to  admit  new  States  into 
this  Union."  And  it  is  said,  that  this  necessarily  implies 
the  authority  of  prescribing  the  conditions,  upon  which  such 
new  States  shall  be  admitted.  This  has  been  put  into  the 
form  of  a  syllogism  which  is  thus  stated  : 

Major.  Eveiy  universal  proposition  includes  all  the 
means,  manner,  and  terms  of  the  act  to  which  it  relates. 

Minor.  But  this  is  a  universal  proposition. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  321 

Conclusion.  Therefore,  the  means,  manner,  and  terms, 
are  involved  in  it. 

But  this  syllogism  is  fallacious,  and  any  thing  else  may 
be  proved  by  it,  by  assuming  one  of  its  members  which 
involves  the  conclusion.  The  minor  is  a  mere  postulate. 

Take  it  in  this  way  : 

Major.  None  but  a  universal  proposition  includes  in 
itself  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  act  to  be  done. 

Minor.  But  this  is  not  such  a  universal  proposition. 

Conclusion.  Therefore,  it  does  not  contain  in  itself  the 
terms  and  conditions  of  the  act. 

In  both  cases  the  minor  is  a  gratuitous  postulate. 

But  I  deny  that  a  universal  proposition  as  to  a  specific 
act,  involves  the  terms  and  conditions  of  that  act,  so  as  to 
vary  it  and  substitute  another  and  a  different  act  in  its 
place.  The  proposition  contained  in  the  clause  is  universal 
in  one  sense  only.  It  is  particular  in  another.  It  is  uni 
versal  as  to  the  power  to  admit  or  refuse.  It  is  particular 
as  to  the  being  or  thing  to  be  admitted,  and  the  compact  by 
which  it  is  to  be  admitted.  The  sophistry  consists  in 
extending  the  universal  part  of  the  proposition  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  make  out  of  it  another  universal  proposition. 
It  consists  in  confounding  the  right  to  produce  or  to  refuse 
to  produce  a  certain  defined  effect,  with  a  right  to  produce  a 
different  effect  by  refusing  otherwise  to  produce  any  effect  at 
all.  It  makes  the  actual  right  the  instrument  of  obtaining 
another  right  with  which  the  actual  right  is  incompatible. 
It  makes,  in  a  word,  lawful  power  the  instrument  of  unlaw 
ful  usurpation.  The  result  is  kept  out  of  sight  by  this 
mode  of  reasoning.  The  discretion  to  decline  that  result, 
which  is  called  a  universal  proposition,  is  singly  obtruded 
upon  us.  But  in  order  to  reason  correctly,  you  must  keep 
in  view  the  defined  result,  as  well  as  the  discretion  to  pro 
duce  or  to  decline  to  produce  it.  The  result  is  the  particu 
lar  part  of  the  proposition  ;  therefore,  the  discretion  to 
21 


322  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

produce  or  decline  it,  is  the  universal  part  of  it.  But 
because  the  last  is  found  to  be  universal,  it  is  taken  for 
granted  that  the  first  is  also  universal.  This  is  a  sophism 
too  manifest  to  impose. 

But  discarding  the  machinery  of  syllogisms  as  unfit  for 
such  a  discussion  as  this,  let  us  look  at  the  clause  with  a 
view  of  interpreting  it  by  the  rules  of  sound  logic  and  com 
mon  sense. 

The  power  is  "  to  admit  new  States  into  this  Union ;" 
and  it  may  be  safely  conceded  that  here  is  discretion  to 
admit  or  refuse.  The  question  is,  What  must  we  do  if  we 
do  any  thing  ?  What  must  we  admit,  and  into  what  ? 
The  answer  is  a  State — and  into  this  Union. 

The  distinction  between  federal  rights  and  local  rights, 
is  an  idle  distinction.  Because  the  new  State  acquires 
federal  rights,  it  is  not,  therefore,  in  this  Union.  The  Union 
is  a  compact ;  and  is  it  an  equal  party  to  that  compact,  be 
cause  it  has  equal  federal  rights  ? 

How  is  the  Union  formed  ?  By  equal  contributions  of 
power.  Make  one  member  sacrifice  more  than  other,  and  it 
becomes  unequal.  The  compact  is  of  two  parts. 

1.  The  thing  obtained — federal  rights. 

2.  The  price  paid — local  sovereignty. 

You  may  disturb  the  balance  of  the  Union,  either  by  di 
minishing  the  thing  acquired,  or  increasing  the  sacrifice 
paid. 

^^What  were  the  purposes  of  coming  into  the  Union 
among  the  original  States  ?  The  States  were  originally 
sovereign  without  limit,  as  to  foreign  and  domestic  concerns. 
But  being  incapable  of  protecting  themselves  singly,  they 
entered  into  the  Union  to  defend  themselves  against  foreign 
violence.  The  domestic  concerns  of  the  people  were  not,  in 
general,  to  be  acted  on  by  it.  The  security  of  the  power  of 
managing  them  by  domestic  legislation,  is  one  of  the  great 
objects  of  the  Union.  The  Union  is  a  means,  not  an  end. 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  323 

By  requiring  greater  sacrifices  of  domestic  power,  the  end  is 
sacrificed  to  the  means.  Suppose  the  surrender  of  all,  or 
nearly  all,  the  domestic  powers  of  legislation  were  required  ; 
the  means  would  there  have  swallowed  up  the  end. 

The  argument  that  the  compact  may  be  enforced,  shows 
that  the  federal  predicament  is  changed.  The  power  of  the 
Union  not  only  acts  on  persons  or  citizens,  but  on  the 
faculty  of  the  government,  and  restrains  it  in  a  way  which 
the  constitution  nowhere  authorizes.  This  new  obligation 
takes  away  a  right  which  is  expressly  "  reserved  to  the  peo 
ple  or  the  States,"  since  it  is  nowhere  granted  to  the  govern 
ment  of  the  Union.  You  cannot  do  indirectly  what  you 
cannot  do  directly.  It  is  said  that  this  Union  is  competent 
to  make  compacts.  Who  doubts  it  ?  But  can  you  make 
this  compact ;  I  insist  that  you  cannot  make  it,  because  it 
is  repugnant  to  the  thing  to  be  done. 

The  effect  of  such  a  compact  would  be  to  produce  that 
inequality  in  the  Union,  to  which  the  constitution,  in  all  its 
provisions,  is  adverse.  Every  thing  in  it  looks  to  equality 
among  the  members  of  the  Union.  Under  it,  you  cannot 
produce  inequality.  Nor  can  you  get  beforehand  of  the  con 
stitution,  and  do  it  by  anticipation.  Wait  until  a  State  is 
in  the  Union,  and  you  cannot  do  it  :  yet  it  is  only  upon  the 

State  in  the  Union  that  what  you  do  begins  to  act. 

*         #         *         #         &         $         &         *         & 

But  it  seems,  that  although  the  proposed  restriction  may 
not  be  justified  by  the  clause  of  the  constitution  which  gives 
power  to  admit  new  States  into  the  Union,  separately  con 
sidered,  there  are  other  parts  of  the  constitution  which  com 
bined  with  that  clause  will  warrant  it.  And  first  we  are 
informed  that  there  is  a  clause  in  this  instrument  which  de 
clares  that  Congress  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  a  repub 
lican  form  of  government  ;  that  slavery  and  such  a  form  of 
government  are  incompatible  ;  and  finally,  as  a  conclusion 
from  these  premises,  that  Congress  not  only  have  a  right, 


324  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

but  are  bound  to  exclude  slavery  from  a  new  State.  Here 
again,  Sir,  there  is  an  edifying  inconsistency  between  the  ar 
gument  and  the  measure  which  it  professes  to  vindicate. 
By  the  argument  it  is  maintained  that  Missouri  cannot  have 
a  republican  form  of  government,  and  at  the  same  time  toler 
ate  negro  slavery.  By  the  measure  it  is  admitted  that  Mis 
souri  may  tolerate  slavery,  as  to  persons  already  in  bondage 
there,  and  be  nevertheless  fit  to  be  received  into  the  Union. 
What  sort  of  constitutional  mandate  is  this  which  can  thus 
be  made  to  bend,  and  truckle,  and  compromise  as  if  it  were 
a  simple  rule  of  expediency  that  might  admit  of  exceptions 
upon  motives  of  countervailing  expediency  ?  There  can  be 
no  such  pliancy  in  the  peremptory  provisions  of  the  consti 
tution.  They  cannot  be  obeyed  by  moieties  and  violated  in 
the  same  ratio.  They  must  be  followed  out  to  their  full 
extent,  or  treated  with  that  decent  neglect  which  has  at 
least  the  merit  of  forbearing  to  render  contumacy  obtrusive 
by  an  ostentatious  display  of  the  very  duty  which  we  in  part 
abandon.  If  the  decalogue  could  be  observed  in  this  casu 
istical  manner,  we  might  be  grievous  sinners,  and  yet  be 
liable  to  no  reproach.  We  might  persist  in  all  our  habitual 
irregularities,  and  still  be  spotless.  We  might,  for  example, 
continue  to  covet  our  neighbors'  goods,  provided  they  were 
the  same  neighbors  whose  goods  we  had  before  coveted — and 
so  of  all  the  other  commandments. 

Will  the  gentlemen  tell  us  that  it  is  the  quantity  of 
slaves,  not  the  quality  of  slavery,  which  takes  from  a  govern 
ment  the  republican  form  ?  Will  they  tell  us  (for  they 
have  not  yet  told  us)  that  there  are  constitutional  grounds 
(to  say  nothing  of  common  sense)  upon  which  the  slavery 
which  now  exists  in  Missouri  may  be  reconciled  with  a  re 
publican  form  of  government,  while  any  addition  to  the 
number  of  its  slaves  (the  quality  of  slavery  remaining  the 
same)  from  the  other  States,  will  be  repugnant  to  that  form, 
and  metamorphose  it  into  some  non-descript  government 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  325 

disowned  by  the  constitution  ?  They  cannot  have  recourse 
to  the  treaty  of  1803  for  such  a  distinction,  since  indepen 
dently  of  what  I  have  before  observed  on  that  head,  the 
gentlemen  hav«  contended  that  the  treaty  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  matter.  They  have  cut  themselves  off  from  all 
chance  of  a  convenient  distinction  in  or  out  of  that  treaty, 
by  insisting  that  slavery  beyond  the  old  United  States  is  re 
jected  by  the  constitution,  and  by  the  law  of  God  as  discov 
erable  by  the  aid  of  either  reason  or  revelation  ;  and  more 
over  that  the  treaty  does  not  include  the  case,  and  if  it  did 
could  not  make  it  better.  They  have  therefore  completely 
discredited  their  own  theory  by  their  own  practice,  and  left 
us  no  theory  worthy  of  being  seriously  controverted.  This 
peculiarity  in  reasoning,  of  giving  out  a  universal  principle 
and  coupling  with  it  a  practical  concession  that  it  is  wholly 
fallacious,  has  indeed  run  through  the  greater  part  of  the 
arguments  on  the  other  side  ;  but  it  is  not,  as  I  think,  the 
more  imposing  on  that  account,  or  the  less  liable  to  the  cri 
ticism  which  I  have  here  bestowed  upon  it. 

There  is  a  remarkable  inaccuracy  on  this  branch  of  the 
subject  into  which  the  gentlemen  have  fallen,  and  to  which 
I  will  give  a  moment's  attention  without  laying  unnecessary 
stress  upon  it.  The  government  of  a  new  State,  as  well  as 
of  an  old  State,  must,  I  agree,  be  republican  in  its  form. 
But  it  has  not  been  very  clearly  explained  what  the  laws 
which  such  a  government  may  enact  can  have  to  do  with  its 
form.  The  form  of  the  government  is  material  only  as  it 
furnishes  a  security  that  those  laws  will  protect  and  promote 
the  public  happiness,  and  be  made  in  a  republican  spirit. 
The  people  being,  in  such  a  government,  the  fountain  of 
all  power,  and  their  servants  being  periodically  responsible 
to  them  for  its  exercise,  the  constitution  of  the  Union  takes 
for  granted,  (except  so  far  as  it  imposes  limitations,)  that 
every  such  exercise  will  be  just  and  salutary.  The  intro 
duction  or  continuance  of  civil  slavery  is  manifestly  the  mere 


326  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

result  of  the  power  of  making  laws.  It  does  not  in  any 
degree  enter  into  the  form  of  the  government.  It  pre-sup- 
poses  that  form  already  settled,  and  takes  its  rise  not  from 
the  particular  frame  of  the  government,  but  from  the  gene 
ral  power  which  every  government  involves.  Make  the  gov 
ernment  what  you  will  in  its  organization  and  in  the  distri 
bution  of  its  authorities,  the  introduction  or  continuance  of 
involuntary  servitude  by  the  legislative  power  which  it  has 
created  can  have  no  influence  on  its  pre-established  form, 
whether  monarchical,  aristocratical,  or  republican.  The 
form  of  government  is  still  one  thing,  and  the  law,  being  a 
simple  exertion  of  the  ordinary  faculty  of  legislation  by  those 
to  whom  that  form  of  government  has  intrusted  it,  another. 
The  gentlemen,  however,  identify  an  act  of  legislation  sanc 
tioning  involuntary  servitude  with  the  form  of  government 
itself,  and  then  assure  us  that  the  last  is  changed  retroac 
tively  by  the  first,  and  is  no  longer  republican  ! 

But  let  us  proceed  to  take  a  rapid  glance  at  the  reasons 
which  have  been  assigned  for  this  notion  that  involuntary 
servitude  and  a  republican  form  of  government  are  perfect 
antipathies.  The  gentleman  from  New-Hampshire*  has  de 
fined  a  republican  government  to  be  that  in  which  all  the 
men  participate  in  its  power  and  privileges  :  from  whence  it 
follows  that  where  there  are  slaves,  it  can  have  no  existence. 
A  definition  is  no  proof,  however;  and  even  if  it  be  dignified 
(as  I  think  it  was)  with  the  name  of  a  maxim,  the  matter 
is  not  much  mended.  It  is  Lord  Bacon  who  says  "that 
nothing  is  so  easily  made  as  a  maxim ;"  and  certainly  a 
definition  is  manufactured  with  equal  facility.  A  polit 
ical  maxim  is  the  work  of  induction,  and  cannot  stand 
against  experience,  or  stand  on  any  thing  but  experience. 
But  this  maxim,  or  definition,  or  whatever  else  it  may  be, 
sets  fact  at  defiance.  If  you  go  back  to  antiquity,  you 

*  Mr.  Morril. 


LIFE  OP  WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  327 

will  obtain  no  countenance  for  this  hypothesis  ;  and  if  you 
look  at  home  you  will  gain  still  less.  I  have  read  that 
Sparta,  and  Kome,  and  Athens,  and  many  others  of  the 
ancient  family  were  republics.  They  were  so  in  form  un 
doubtedly — the  last  approaching  nearer  to  a  perfect  demo 
cracy  than  any  other  government  which  has  yet  been  known 
in  the  world.  Judging  of  them  also  by  their  fruits,  they 
were  of  the  highest  order  of  republics.  Sparta  could 
scarcely  be  any  other  than  a  republic,  when  a  Spartan 
matron  could  say  to  her  son  just  marching  to  battle,  KE- 
TUEN  VICTOKIOUS,  OB  RETURN  NO  MORE.  It  was  the  uncon- 
querable  spirit  of  liberty,  nurtured  by  republican  habits 
and  institutions,  that  illustrated  the  pass  of  Thermopylae. 
Yet  slavery  was  not  only  tolerated  in  Sparta,  but  was  estab 
lished  by  one  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  Lycurgus,  having 
for  its  object  the  encouragement  of  that  very  spirit.  Attica 
was  full  of  slaves — yet  the  love  of  liberty  was  its  charac 
teristic.  What  else  was  it  that  foiled  the  whole  power  of 
Persia  at  Marathon  and  Salamis  ?  What  other  soil  than 
that  which  the  genial  Sun  of  Eepublican  Freedom  illumin 
ated  and  warmed,  could  have  produced  such  men  as  Leo- 
nidas  and  Miltiades,  Themistocles  and  Epaminondas  ? 
Of  Koine  it  would  be  superfluous  to  speak  at  large.  It  is 
sufficient  to  name  the  mighty  mistress  of  the  world,  before 
Sylla  gave  the  first  stab  to  her  liberties  and  the  great  dic 
tator  accomplished  their  final  ruin,  to  be  reminded  of  the 
practicability  of  union  between  civil  slavery  and  an  ardent 
love  of  liberty  cherished  by  republican  establishments. 

If  we  return  home  for  instruction  upon  this  point,  we 
perceive  that  same  union  exemplified  in  many  a  State,  in 
which  "  Liberty  has  a  temple  in  every  house,  an  altar  in 
every  heart,"  while  involuntary  servitude  is  seen  in  every 
direction.  Is  it  denied  that  those  States  possess  a  republi 
can  form  of  government  ?  If  it  is,  why  does  our  power 
of  correction  sleep  ?  Why  is  the  constitutional  guaranty 


328  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

suffered  to  be  inactive  ?  Why  am  I  permitted  to  fatigue 
you,  as  the  representative  of  a  slaveholding  State,  with  the 
discussion  of  the  nugce  canorce  (for  so  I  think  them) 
that  have  been  forced  into  this  debate  contrary  to  all  the 
remonstrances  of  taste  and  prudence  ?  Do  gentlemen  per 
ceive  the  consequences  to  which  their  arguments  must  lead 
if  they  are  of  any  value  ?  Do  they  reflect  that  they  lead 
to  emancipation  in  the  old  United  States — or  to  an  exclu 
sion  of  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  all  the  South,  and  a  great 
portion  of  the  West,  from  the  Union  ?  My  honorable 
friend  from  Virginia  has  no  business  here,  if  this  disor 
ganizing  creed  be  any  thing  but  the  production  of  a  heated 
brain.  The  State  to  which  I  belong,  must  "  perform  a  lus 
tration" — must  purge  and  purify  herself  from  the  feculence 
of  civil  slavery,  and  emulate  the  States  of  the  north  in 
their  zeal  for  throwing  down  the  gloomy  idol  which  we  are 
said  to  worship,  before  her  senators  can  have  any  title  to  ap 
pear  in  this  high  assembly.  It  will  be  in  vain  to  urge  that 
the  old  United  States  are  exceptions  to  the  rule — or  rather 
(as  the  gentlemen  express  it),  that  they  have  no  disposition 
to  apply  the  rule  to  them.  There  can  be  no  exceptions,  by 
implication  only,  to  such  a  rule  ;  and  expressions  which  jus 
tify  the  exemption  of  the  old  States  by  inference,  will  jus^- 
tify  the  like  exemption  of  Missouri,  unless  they  point  ex 
clusively  to  them,  as  I  have  shown  they  do  not.^^The 
guarded  manner,  too,  in  which  some  of  the  gentlemen  have 
occasionally  expressed  themselves  on  this  subject,  is  some 
what  alarming.  They  have  no  disposition  to  meddle  with 
slavery  in  the  old  United  States.  Perhaps  not — but  who 
shall  answer  for  their  successors  ?  Who  shall  furnish  a 
pledge  that  the  principle  once  engrafted  into  the  constitu 
tion,  will  not  grow,  and  spread,  and  fructify,  and  overshadow 
the  whole  land  ?  It  is  the  natural  office  of  such  a  principle 
to  wrestle  with  slavery,  wheresoever  it  finds  it.  New 
States,  colonized  by  the  apostles  of  this  principle,  will 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  329 

enable  it  to  set  on  foot  a  fanatical  crusade  against  all  who 
still  continue  to  tolerate  it,  although  no  practicable  means 
are  pointed  out  by  which  they  can  get  rid  of  it  consistently 
with  their  own  safety.  lAt  any  rate,  a  present  forbearing 
disposition,  in  a  few  or  in  many,  is  not  a  security  upon  t 
which  much  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  a  subject  as  to 
which  so  many  selfish  interests  and  ardent  feelings  are  con 
nected  with  the  cold  calculations  of  policy.  Admitting, 
however,  that  the  old  United  States  are  in  no  danger  from 
this  principle — why  is  it  so  ?  There  can  be  no  other  an 
swer  (which  these  zealous  enemies  of  slavery  can  use)  than 
that  the  constitution  recognizes  slavery  as  existing  or 
capable  of  existing  in  those  States.  The  constitution,  then, 
admits  that  slavery  and  a  republican  form  of  government 
are  not  incongruous.  It  associates  and  binds  them  up  to 
gether,  and  repudiates  this  wild  imagination  which  the  gen 
tlemen  have  pressed  upon  us  with  such  an  air  of  triumph. 
But  the  constitution  does  more,  as  I  have  heretofore  proved. 
It  concedes  that  slavery  may  exist  in  a  new  State,  as  well  as 
in  an  old  one — since  the  language  in  which  it  recognizes 
slavery  comprehends  new  States  as  well  as  actual.  I  trust 
then  that  I  shall  be  forgiven  if  I  suggest,  that  no  eccentri 
city  in  argument  can  be  more  trying  to  human  patience, 
than  a  formal  assertion  that  a  constitution,  to  which  slave- 
holding  States  were  the  most  numerous  parties,  in  which 
slaves  are  treated  as  property  as  well  as  person*;,  and  provi 
sion  is  made  for  the  security  of  that  property,  and  even  for 
an  augmentation  of  it,  by  a  temporary  importation  from 
Africa,  a  clause  commanding  Congress  to  guarantee  a  repub 
lican  form  of  government  to  those  very  States,  as  well  as  to 
others,  authorizes  you  to  determine  that  slavery  and  a  re 
publican  form  of  government  cannot  coexist. 

But  if  a  republican  form  of  government  is  that  in  which 
all  the  men  have  a  share  in  the  public  power,  the  slave- 
holding  States  will  not  alone  retire  from  the  Union.  The 


330  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

constitutions  of  some  of  the  other  States  do  not  sanction  uni 
versal  suffrage,  or  universal  eligibility.  They  require  citizen 
ship,  and  age,  and  a  certain  amount  of  property,  to  give  a 
title  to  vote  or  to  be  voted  for  ;  and  they  who  have  not  those 
qualifications  are  just  as  much  disfranchised,  with  regard  to 
the  government  and  its  power,  as  if  they  were  slaves.  They 
have  civil  rights  indeed  (and  so  have  slaves  in  a  less  degree)  ; 
but  they  have  no  share  in  the  government.  Their  province 
is  to  obey  the  laws,  not  to  assist  in  making  them.  All  such 
States  must  therefore  be  forisfamiliated  with  Virginia  and 
the  rest,  or  change  their  system  :  for  the  constitution  being 
absolutely  silent  on  those  subjects,  will  afford  them  no  pro 
tection.  The  Union  might  thus  be  reduced  from  an  Union 
to  an  unit.  Who  does  not  see  that  such  conclusions  flow 
from  false  notions — that  the  true  theory  of  a  republican  gov 
ernment  is  mistaken — and  that  in  such  a  government,  rights 
political  and  civil,  may  be  qualified  by  the  fundamental  law, 
upon  such  inducements  as  the  freemen  of  the  country  deem 
sufficient  ?  That  civil  rights  may  be  qualified  as  well  as 
political,  is  proved  by  a  thousand  examples.  Minors,  resi 
dent  aliens,  who  are  in  a  course  of  naturalization — the  other 
sex,  whether  maids  or  wives,  or  widows,  furnish  sufficient 
practical  proofs  of  this. 

Again;  if  we  are  to  entertain  these  hopeful  abstractions, 
and  to  resolve  all  establishments  into  their  imaginary  ele 
ments  in  order  to  recast  them  upon  some  Utopian  plan,  and 
if  it  be  true  that  all  the  men  in  a  republican  government 
must  help  to  wield  its  power,  and  be  equal  in  rights,  I  beg 
leave  to  ask  the  honorable  gentleman  from  New  Hampshire — 
and  why  not  all  the  women  ?  They  too  are  God's  creatures, 
and  not  only  very  fair  but  very  rational  creatures  ;  and  our 
great  ancestor,  if  we  are  to  give  credit  to  Milton,  accounted 
them  the  "  wisest,  virtuousest,  discreetest,  best  ;"  although 
to  say  the  truth  he  had  but  one  specimen  from  which  to 
draw  his  conclusion,  and  possibly  if  he  had  had  more,  would 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  331 

not  have  drawn  it  at  all.  They  have,  moreover,  acknowledged 
civil  rights  in  abundance,  and  upon  abstract  principles  more 
than  their  masculine  rulers  allow  them  in  fact.  Some 
monarchies,  too,  do  not  exclude  them  from  the  throne.  We 
have  all  read  of  Elizabeth  of  England,  of  Catharine  of  Eus- 
sia,  of  Semiramis,  and  Zenobia,  and  a  long  list  of  royal  and 
imperial  dames,  about  as  good  as  an  equal  list  of  royal  and 
imperial  lords.  Why  is  it  that  their  exclusion  from  the 
power  of  a  popular  government  is  not  destructive  of  its  're 
publican  character  ?  I  do  not  address  this  question  to  the 
honorable  gentleman's  gallantry,  but  to  his  abstraction,  and 
his  theories,  and  his  notions  of  the  infinite  perfectibility  of 
human  institutions,  borrowed  from  Godwin  and  the  turbulent 
philosophers  of  France.  For  my  own  part,  Sir,  if  I  may 
have  leave  to  say  so  much  in  the  presence  of  this  mixed  un 
common  audience,  I  confess  I  am  no  friend  to  female  govern 
ment,  unless  indeed  it  be  that  which  reposes  on  gentleness, 
and  modesty,  and  virtue,  and  feminine  grace  and  delicacy  ; 
and  how  powerful  a  government  that  is,  we  have  all  of  us,  as 
I  suspect,  at  some  time  or  other  experienced  !  But  if  the 
ultra  republican  doctrines  which  have  now  been  broached 
should  ever  gain  ground  among  us,  I  should  not  be  surprised 
if  some  romantic  reformer,  treading  in  the  footsteps  of  Mrs. 
Wolstoncraft,  should  propose  to  repeal  our  republican  law 
salique,  and  claim  for  our  wives  and  daughters  a  full  par 
ticipation  in  political  power,  and  to  add  to  it  that  domestic 
power,  which  in  some  families,  as  I  have  heard,  is  as  absolute 
and  unrepublican  as  any  power  can  be. 

I  have  thus  far  allowed  the  honorable  gentlemen  to  avail 
themselves  of  their  assumption  that  the  constitutional  com 
mand  to  guarantee  to  the  States  a  republican  form  of 
government,  gives  power  to  coerce  those  states  in  the  ad 
justment  of  the  details  of  their  constitutions  upon  theo 
retical  speculations.  But  surely  it  is  passing  strange  that 
any  man,  who  thinks  at  all,  can  view  this  salutary  command 


332  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

as  the  grant  of  a  power  so  monstrous  ;  or  look  at  it  in  any 
other  light  than  as  a  protecting  mandate  to  Congress  to  in 
terpose  with  the  force  and  authority  of  the  Union  against 
that  violence  and  usurpation,  hy  which  a  member  of  it  might 
otherwise  be  oppressed  by  profligate  and  powerful  individuals, 
or  ambitious  and  unprincipled  factions. 

In  a  word,  the  resort  to  this  portion  of  the  constitution 
for  an  argument  in  favor  of  the  proposed  restriction,  is  one 
of  fhose  extravagancies  (I  hope  I  shall  not  offend  by  this  ex 
pression)  which  may  excite  our  admiration,  but  cannot  call 
for  a  very  rigorous  refutation.  I  have  dealt  with  it  accord 
ingly,  and  have  now  done  with  it. 

We  are  next  invited  to  study  that  clause  of  the  consti 
tution  which  relates  to  the  migration  or  importation,  before 
the  year  1808,  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  States  then  ex 
isting  should  think  proper  to  admit.  It  runs  thus  :  "  The 
migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  States 
now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit,  shall  not  be  pro 
hibited  by  the  Congress  prior  to  the  year  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  eight,  but  a  tax  or  duty  may  be  imposed 
on  such  importation  not  exceeding  ten  dollars  for  each 
person." 

It  is  said  that  this  clause  empowers  Congress,  after  the 
year  1808,  to  prohibit  the  passage  of  slaves  from  State 
to  State,  and  the  word  "  migration"  is  relied  upon  for  that 
purpose. 

I  will  not  say  that  the  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  power 
by  a  clause  which,  as  far  as  it  goes,  denies  it,  is  always  inad 
missible  ;  but  I  will  say  that  it  is  always  feeble.  On  this 
occasion,  it  is  singularly  so.  The  power,  in  an  affirmative 
shape,  cannot  be  found  in  the  constitution;  or  if  it  can,  it 
is  equivocal  and  unsatisfactory.  How  do  the  gentlemen 
supply  this  deficiency  ?  by  the  aid  of  a  negative  provision  in 
an  article  of  the  constitution  in  which  many  restrictions  are 
inserted  ex  dbundanti  cautela,  from  which  it  is  plainly  im- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  333 

possible  to  infer  that  the  power  to  which  they  apply  would 
otherwise  have  existed.  Thus  :  "  JSTo  bill  of  attainder  or  ex 
post  facto  law  shall  be  passed."  Take  away  the  restriction, 
could  Congress  pass  a  bill  of  attainder,  the  trial  by  jury  in 
criminal  cases  being  expressly  secured  by  the  constitution  ? 
The  inference,  therefore,  from  the  prohibition  in  question, 
whatever  may  be  its  meaning,  to  the  power  which  it  is  sup 
posed  to  restrain,  but  which  you  cannot  lay  your  finger  upon 
with  any  pretensions  to  certainty,  must  be  a  very  doubtful 
one.  But  the  import  of  the  prohibition  is  also  doubtful,  as 
the  gentlemen  themselves  admit.  So  that  a  doubtful  power 
is  to  be  made  certain  by  a  yet  more  doubtful  negative  upon 
power — or  rather  a  doubtful  negative,  where  there  is  no  evi 
dence  of  the  corresponding  affirmative,  is  to  make  out  the 
affirmative  and  to  justify  us  in  acting  upon  it,  in  a  matter 
of  such  high  moment,  that  questionable  power  should  not 
dare  to  approach  it.  If  the  negative  were  perfectly  clear  in 
its  import,  the  conclusion  which  has  been  drawn  from  it 
would  be  rash,  because  it  might  have  proceeded,  as  some  of 
the  negatives  in  whose  company  it  is  found  evidently  did 
proceed,  from  great  anxiety  to  prevent  such  assumptions  of 
authority  as  are  now  attempted.  But  when  it  is  conceded, 
that  the  supposed  import  of  this  negative  (as  to  the  terra 
migration)  is  ambiguous,  and  that  it  may  have  been  used  in 
a  very  different  sense  from  that  which  is  imputed  to  it,  the 
conclusion  acquires  a  character  of  boldness,  which,  however 
some  may  admire,  the  wise  and  reflecting  will  not  fail  to 
condemn. 

In  the  construction  of  this  clause,  the  first  remark  that 
occurs  is,  that  the  word  MIGRATION  is  associated  with  the 
word  IMPORTATION.  I  do  not  insist  that  noscitur  a  sociis  is 
as  good  a  rule  in  matters  of  interpretation  as  in  common 
life  ;  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  of  considerable  weight  when  the 
associated  words  are  not  qualified  by  any  phrases  that  disturb 
the  effect  of  their  fellowship  ;  and  unless  it  announces  (as 


334  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

in  this  case  it  does  not),  by  specific  phrases  combined  with 
the  associated  term,  a  different  intention.  Moreover,  the 
ordinary  unrestricted  import  of  the  word  migration  is  what 
I  have  here  supposed.  A  removal  from  district  to  district, 
within  the  same  jurisdiction,  is  never  denominated  a  migra 
tion  of  persons.  I  will  concede  to  the  honorable  gentlemen, 
if  they  will  accept  the  concession,  that  ants  may  be  said  to 
migrate  when  they  go  from  one  ant-hill  to  another  at  no 
great  distance  from  it.  But  even  then  they  could  not  be 
said  to  migrate,  if  each  ant-hill  was  their  home  in  virtue  of 
some  federal  compact  with  insects  like  themselves.  But, 
however  this  may  be,  it  should  seem  to  be  certain  that  hu 
man  beings  do  not  migrate,  in  the  sense  of  a  constitution, 
simply  because  they  transplant  themselves,  from  one  place, 
to  which  that  constitution  extends,  to  another  which  it 
equally  covers. 

If  this  word  migration  applied  to  freemen,  and  not  to 
slaves,  it  would  be  clear  that  removal  from  State  to  State 
would  not  be  comprehended  within  it.  Why  then,  if  you 
choose  to  apply  it  to  slaves,  does  it  take  another  meaning  as 
to  the  place  from  whence  they  are  to  come  ? 
\_Sir,  if  we  once  depart  from  the  usual  acceptation  of  this 
term,  fortified  as  it  is  by  its  union  with  another  in  which 
there  is  nothing  in  this  respect  equivocal,  will  gentlemen 
please  to  intimate  the  point  at  which  we  are  to  stop  ?  Migra 
tion  means,  as  they  contend,  a  removal  from  State  to  State, 
within  the  pale  of  the  common  government.  Why  not  a  re 
moval  also  from  county  to  county  within  a  particular 
State — from  plantation  to  plantation — from  farm  to  farm — 
from  hovel  to  hovel  ?  Why  not  any  exertion  of  the  power 
of  locomotion  ?  I  protest  I  do  not  see,  if  this  arbitrary 
limitation  of  the  natural  sense  of  the  term  migration  be  war 
rantable,  that  a  person  to  whom  it  applies  may  not  be  com 
pelled  to  remain  immovable  all  the  days  of  his  life  (which 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  335 

could  not  well  be  many)  in  the  very  spot;  literally  speaking, 
in  which  it  was  his  good  or  his  bad  fortune  to  be  born. 

Whatever  may  be  the  latitude  in  which  the  word  "per 
sons"  is  capable  of  being  received,  it  is  not  denied  that  the 
word  "  importation"  indicates  a  bringing  in  from  a  jurisdic 
tion  foreign  to  the  United  States.  The  two  termini  of  the 
importation,  here  spoken  of,  are  a  foreign  country  and  the 
American  Union — the  first  the  terminus  a  quo,  the  second 
the  terminus  ad  quern.  The  word  migration  stands  in  sim 
ple  connection  with  it,  and  of  course  is  left  to  the  full  in 
fluence  of  that  connection.  The  natural  conclusion  is,  that 
the  same  termini  belong  to  each,  or  in  other  words,  that  if 
the  importation  must  be  abroad,  so  also  must  be  the  migra 
tion — no  other  termini  being  assigned  to  the  one  which  are 
not  manifestly  characteristic  of  the  other.  This  conclusion 
is  so  obvious,  that  to  repel  it,  the  word  migration  requires, 
as  an  appendage,  explanatory  phraseology,  giving  to  it  a  dif 
ferent  beginning  from  that  of  importation.  To  justify  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  intended  to  mean  a  removal  from 
State  to  State,  each  within  the  sphere  of  the  constitution  in 
which  it  is  used,  the  addition  of  the  words  from  one  to 
another  State  in  this  Union,  were  indispensable.  By  the 
omission  of  these  words,  the  word  "  migration"  is  compelled 
to  take  every  sense  of  which  it  is  fairly  susceptible  from  its 
immediate  neighbor  "  importation."  In  this  view  it  means 
a  coming,  as  "  importation"  means  a  bringing,  from  a  foreign 
jurisdiction  into  the  United  States.  That  it  is  susceptible 
of  this  meaning,  nobody  doubts.  I  go  further.  It  can  have 
no  other  meaning  in  the  place  in  which  it  is  found.  It  is 
found  in  the  constitution  of  this  Union — which,  when  it 
speaks  of  migration  as  of  a  general  concern,  must  be  sup 
posed  to  have  in  view  a  migration  into  the  domain  which 
itself  embraces  as  a  general  government. 

Migration,  then,  even  if  it  comprehends  slaves,  does  not 
mean  the  removal  of  them  from  State  to  State,  but  means 


336  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

the  coming  of  slaves  from  places  beyond  their  limits  and 
their  power.  And  if  this  be  so,  the  gentlemen  gain  nothing 
for  their  argument  by  showing  that  slaves  were  the  objects 
of  this  term. 

An  honorable  gentleman  from  Khode  Island/*  whose 
speech  was  distinguished  for  its  ability,  and  for  an  admirable 
force  of  reasoning,  as  well  as  by  the  moderation  and  mildness 
of  its  spirit,  informed  us,  with  less  discretion  than  in  general 
he  exhibited,  that  the  word  "  migration"  was  introduced  into 
this  clause  at  the  instance  of  some  of  the  Southern  States, 
who  wished  by  its  instrumentality  to  guard  against  a  pro 
hibition  by  Congress  of  the  passage  into  those  States  of 
slaves  from  other  States.  He  has  given  us  no  authority  for 
this  supposition,  and  it  is,  therefore,  a  gratuitous  one.  How 
improbable  it  is,  a  moment's  reflection  will  convince  him. 
The  African  slave-trade  being  open  during  the  whole  of  the 
time  to  which  the  entire  clause  in  question  referred,  such  a 
purpose  could  scarely  be  entertained  ;  but  if  it  had  been  en 
tertained,  and  there  was  believed  to  be  a  necessity  for  secur 
ing  it,  by  a  restriction  upon  the  power  of  Congress  to  interfere 
with  it,  is  it  possible  that  they  who  deemed  it  important 
would  have  contented  themselves  with  a  vague  restraint, 
which  was  calculated  to  operate  in  almost  any  other  manner 
than  that  which  they  desired  ?  If  fear  and  jealousy,  such 
as  the  honorable  gentleman  has  described,  had  dictated  this 
provision,  a  better  term  than  that  of  "  migration,"  simple 
and  unqualified,  and  joined  too  with  the  word  "  importa 
tion,"  would  have  been  found  to  tranquillize  those  fears  and 
satisfy  that  jealousy.  Fear  and  jealousy  are  watchful,  and 
are  rarely  seen  to  accept  a  security  short  of  their  object,  and 
less  rarely  to  shape  that  security,  of  their  own  accord,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  make  it  no  security  at  all.  They  always 
seek  an  explicit  guaranty  ;  and  that  this  is  not  such  a  gua- 

*  Mr.  Burrill. 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  33V 

ranty  this  debate  lias  proved,  if  it  has  proved  nothing 
else. 

Sir,  I  shall  not  be  understood  by  what  I  have  said  to  ad 
mit  that  the  word  migration  refers  to  slaves.  I  have  contended 
only  that  if  it  does  refer  to  slaves,  it  is  in  this  clause  syno 
nymous  with  importation;  and  that  it  cannot  mean  the 
mere  passage  of  slaves,  with  or  without  their  masters,  from 
one  State  in  the  Union  to  another. 

But  I  now  deny  that  it  refers  to  slaves  at  all.  I  am  not 
for  any  man's  opinions  or  his  histories  upon  this  subject.  I 
am  not  accustomed  jurare  in  verba  magistri.  I  shall  take 

the  clause  as  I  find  it,  and  do  my  best  to  interpret  it. 
*  -MJ  #  *>  x  x 

[After  going  through  with  that  part  of  his  argument  re 
lating  to  this  clause  of  the  constitution,  which  I  have  not 
been  able  to  restore  from  the  imperfect  notes  in  my  posses 
sion,  Mr.  Pinkney  concluded  his  speech  by  expressing  a  hope 
that  (what  he  deemed)  the  perilous  principles  urged  by 
those  in  favor  of  the  restriction  upon  the  new  State  would 
be  disavowed  or  explained,  or  that  at  all  events  the  applica 
tion  of  them  to  the  subject  under  discussion  would  not  be 
pressed,  but  that  it  might  be  disposed  of  in  a  manner  satis 
factory  to  all  by  a  prospective  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the 
territory  to  the  north  and  west  of  Missouri.] 


SPEECH  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  ON  THE  TREATY- 
MAKING    POWER. 

In  the  debate  upon  the  bill  to  carry  into  effect  the 
British  convention  of  1815,  Mr.  Pinkney  said :  He  intended 
yesterday,  if  the  state  of  his  health  had  permitted,  to  have 
trespassed  on  the  House  with  a  short  sketch  of  the  grounds 
upon  which  he  disapproved  of  the  bill.  What  I  could  not 
do  then,  (said  he,)  I  am  about  to  endeavor  now,  under  the 
22 


338  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

pressure,  nevertheless,  of  continuing  indisposition,  as  well  as 
under  the  influence  of  a  natural  reluctance  thus  to  manifest 
an  apparently  ambitious  and  improvident  hurry  to  lay  aside 
the  character  of  a  listener  to  the  wisdom  of  others,  by  which 
[  could  not  fail  to  profit,  for  that  of  an  expounder  of  rny  own 
humble  notions,  which  are  not  likely  to  be  profitable  to  any 
body.  It  is,  indeed,  but  too  probable  that  I  should  best 
have  consulted  both  delicacy  and  discretion,  if  I  had  forborne 
this  precipitate  attempt  to  launch  my  little  bark  upon  what 
an  honorable  member  has  aptly  termed  "the  torrent  of  de 
bate  "  which  this  bill  has  produced.  I  am  conscious  that  it 
may  with  singular  propriety  be  said  of  me,  that  I  am  noves 
Jiospcs  here  ;  that  I  have  scarcely  begun  to  acquire  a  domicil 
among  those  whom  I  am  undertaking  to  address  ;  and  that  re 
cently  transplanted  hither  from  courts  of  judicature,  I  ought 
for  a  season  to  look  upon  myself  as  a  sort  of  exotic,  which 
time  has  not  sufficiently  familiarized  with  the  soil  to  which  it 
has  been  removed,  to  enable  it  to  put  forth  either  fruit  or 
flower.  However  all  this  may  be,  it  is  now  too  late  to  be 
silent.  I  proceed,  therefore,  to  entreat  your  indulgent  atten 
tion  to  the  few  words  with  which  I  have  to  trouble  you  upon 
the  subject  under  deliberation. 

That  subject  has  already  been  treated  with  an  admirable 
force  and  perspicuity  on  all  sides  of  the  House.  The  strong 
power  of  argument  has  drawn  aside,  as  it  ought  to  do,  the 
veil  which  is  supposed  to  belong  to  it,  and  which  some  of  us 
seem  unwilling  to  disturb  ;  and  the  stronger  power  of  genius, 
from  a  higher  region  than  that  of  argument,  has  thrown 
upon  it  all  the  light  with  which  it  is  the  prerogative  of  genius 
to  invest  and  illustrate  every  thing.  It  is  fit  that  it  should 
"be  so  ;  for  the  subject  is  worthy  by  its  dignity  and  impor 
tance  to  employ  in  the  discussion  of  it  all  the  powers  of  the 
mind,  and  all  the  eloquence  by  which  I  have  already  felt 
that  this  assembly  is  distinguished.  The  subject  is  the  fun 
damental  law.  We  owe  it  to  the  people  to  labor  with  sin- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  339 

cerity  and  diligence,  to  ascertain  the  true  construction  of 
that  law,  which  is  but  a  record  of  their  will.  We  owe  it  to 
the  obligations  of  the  oath  which  has  recently  been  imprinted 
upon  our  consciences,  as  well  as  to  the  people,  to  be  obedient 
to  that  will  when  we  have  succeeded  in  ascertaining  it .  I 
shall  give  you  my  opinion  upon  this  matter,  with  the  utmost 
deference  for  the  judgment  of  others  ;  but  at  the  same  time 
with  that  honest  and  unreserved  freedom  which  becomes  this 
place,  and  is  suited  to  my  habits. 

Before  we  can  be  in  a  situation  to  decide  whether  this 
bill  ought  to  pass,  we  must  know  precisely  what  it  is ;  what  it 
is  not  is  obvious.  It  is  not  a  bill  which  is  auxiliary  to  the 
treaty.  It  does  not  deal  with  details  which  the  treaty  does 
not  bear  in  its  own  bosom.  It  contains  no  subsidiary  enact 
ments,  no  dependent  provisions,  flowing  as  corollaries  from 
the  treaty.  It  is  not  to  raise  money,  or  to  make  appropria 
tions,  or  to  do  any  thing  else  beyond  or  out  of  the  treaty.  It 
acts  simply  as  the  echo  of  the  treaty. 

Ingeminat  voces,  auditaque  verba  reportat.  It  may 
properly  be  called  the  twin  brother  of  the  treaty;  its  dupli 
cate,  its  reflected  image,  for  it  re-enacts  with  a  timid  fidelity, 
somewhat  inconsistent  with  the  boldness  of  its  pretensions, 
all  that  the  treaty  stipulates,  and  having  performed  that 
work  of  supererogation,  stops.  It  once  attempted  something 
more,  indeed  ;  but  that  surplus  has  been  expunged  from  it 
as  a  desperate  intruder,  as  something  which  might  violate, 
by  a  misinterpretation  of  the  treaty,  that  very  public  faith 
which  we  are  now  prepared  to  say  the  treaty  has  never 
plighted  in  any  the  smallest  degree.  In  a  word,  the  bill  is 
Sifac-simile  of  trie  treaty  in  all  its  clauses. 

I  am  warranted  in  concluding,  then,  that  if  it  be  any 
thing  but  an  empty  form  of  words,  it  is  a  confirmation  or 
ratification  of  the  treaty;  or,  to  speak  with  a  more  guarded 
accuracy,  is  an  act  to  which  only  (if  passed  into  law)  the 
treaty  can  owe  its  being.  If  it  does  not  spring  from  the 


340  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

pruritas  leges  ferendi,  by  which  this  body  can  never  be 
afflicted,  I  am  warranted  in  saying,  that  it  springs  from  an 
hypothesis  (which  may  afflict  us  with  a  worse  disease)  that 
no  treaty  of  commerce  can  be  made  by  any  power  in  the 
state  but  Congress.  It  stands  upon  that  postulate,  or  it  is 
a  mere  bubble,  which  might  be  suffered  to  float  through  the 
forms  of  legislation,  and  then  to  burst  without  consequence 
or  notice. 

That  this  postulate  is  utterly  irreconcilable  with  the 
claims  and  port  with  which  this  convention  comes  before  you, 
it  is  impossible  to  deny.  Look  at  it  !  Has  it  the  air  or 
shape  of  a  mere  pledge  that  the  President  will  recommend 
to  Congress  the  passage  of  such  laws  as  will  produce  the 
effect  at  which  it  aims  ?  Does  it  profess  to  be  preliminary, 
or  provisional,  or  inchoate,  or  to  rely  upon  your  instrumen 
tality  in  the  consummation  of  it,  or  to  take  any  notice  of 
you,  however  distant,  as  actual  or  eventual  parties  to  it  ? 
No,  it  pretends  upon  the  face  of  it,  and  in  the  solemnities 
with  which  it  has  been  accompanied  and  followed,  to  be  a 
pact  with  a  foreign  state,  complete  and  self-efficient,  from 
the  obligation  of  which  this  government  cannot  now  escape, 
and  to  the  perfection  of  which  no  more  is  necessary  than  has 
already  been  done.  It  contains  the  clause  which  is  found  in 
the  treaty  of  1794,  and  substantially  in  every  other  treaty 
made  by  the  United  States  under  the  present  constitution, 
so  as  to  become  a  formula,  that,  when  ratified  by  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con 
sent  of  the  Senate,  and  by  his  Britannic  majesty,  and  the 
respective  ratifications  mutually  exchanged,  it  shall  be  bind 
ing  and  obligatory  on  the  said  states  and  his  majesty. 

It  has  been  ratified  in  conformity  with  that  clause.  Its 
ratifications  have  been  exchanged  in  the  established  and 
stipulated  mode.  It  has  been  proclaimed,  as  other  treaties 
have  been  proclaimed,  by  the  executive  government,  as  an 
integral  portion  of  the  law  of  the  land,  and  our  citizens  at 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  341 

home  and  abroad,  have  been  admonished  to  keep  and  observe 
it  accordingly.  It  has  been  sent  to  the  other  contracting 
party  with  the  last  stamp  of  the  national  faith  upon  it,  after 
the  manner  of  former  treaties  with  the  same  power,  and 
will  have  been  received  and  acted  upon  by  that  party  as  a 
concluded  contract,  long  before  your  loitering  legislation  can 
overtake  it.  I  protest,  Sir,  I  am  somewhat  at  a  loss  to  un 
derstand  what  this  convention  has  been  since  its  ratifications 
were  exchanged,  and  what  it  is  now,  if  our  bill  be  sound  in 
its  principle.  Has  it  not  been,  and  is  it  not  an  unintelligible, 
unbaptized  and  unbaptizable  thing,  without  attributes  of  any 
kind,  bearing  the  semblance  of  an  executed  compact,  but  in 
reality  a  hollow  fiction ;  a  thing  which  no  man  is  led  to  con 
sider  even  as  the  germ  of  a  treaty,  entitled  to  be  cherished 
in  the  vineyard  of  the  constitution  ;  a  thing  which,  profess 
ing  to  have  done  every  thing  that  public  honor  demands,  has 
done  nothing  but  practise  delusion  ?  You  may  ransack 
every  diplomatic  nomenclature  and  run  through  every  voca 
bulary,  whether  of  diplomacy  or  law,  and  you  shall  not  find  a 
word  by  which  you  may  distinguish,  if  our  bill  be  correct  in 
its  hypothesis,  this  "  deed  without  a  name."  A  plain  man 
who  is  not  used  to  manage  his  phrases,  may,  therefore,  pre 
sume  to  say  that  if  this  convention  with  England  be  not  a 
valid  treaty,  which  does  not  stand  in  need  of  your  assistance, 
it  is  an  usurpation  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  undertaken 
to  make  it ;  that  if  it  be  not  an  act  within  the  treaty-making 
capacity,  confided  to  the  President  and  Senate,  it  is  an  en 
croachment  on  the  legislative  rights  of  Congress. 

I  am  one  of  those  who  view  the  bill  upon  the  table,  as 
declaring  that  it  is  not  within  that  capacity,  as  looking  down 
upon  the  convention  as  the  still-born  progeny  of  arrogated 
power,  as  offering  to  it  the  paternity  of  Congress,  and  affect 
ing  by  that  paternity  to  give  to  it  life  and  strength  ;  and  as  I 
think  that  the  convention  does  not  stand  in  need  of  any  such 
filiation,  to  make  it  either  strong  or  legitimate,  that  it  is 


342  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

already  all  that  it  can  become,  and  that  useless  legislation 
upon  such  a  subject  is  vicious  legislation,  I  shall  vote  against 
the  bill.  The  correctness  of  these  opinions  is  what  I  propose 
to  establish. 

I  lay  it  down  as  an  incontrovertible  truth,  that  the  con 
stitution  has  assumed  (and,  indeed,  how  could  it  do  other 
wise  ?)  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  might  and 
would  have  occasion,  like  the  other  governments  of  the 
civilized  world,  to  enter  into  treaties  with  foreign  powers, 
upon  the  various  subjects  involved  in  their  mutual  relations  ; 
and  further,  that  it  might  be,  and  was  proper  to  designate 
the  department  of  the  government  in  which  the  capacity  to 
make  such  treaties  should  be  lodged.  It  has  said,  accord 
ingly,  that  the  President,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Sen 
ate,  shall  possess  this  portion  of  the  national  sovereignty. 
It  has,  furthermore,  given  to  the  same  magistrate,  with  the 
same  concurrence,  the  exclusive  creation  and  control  of  the 
whole  machinery  of  diplomacy.  He  only,  with  the  appro 
bation  of  the  Senate,  can  appoint  a  negotiator,  or  take  any 
step  towards  negotiation.  The  constitution  does  not,  in  any 
part  of  it,  even  intimate  that  any  other  department  shall 
possess  either  a  constant  or  an  occasional  right  to  interpose 
in  the  preparation  of  any  treaty,  or  in  the  final  perfection 
of  it.  The  President  and  Senate  are  explicitly  pointed  out 
as  the  sole  actors  in  that  sort  of  transaction.  The  pre 
scribed  concurrence  of  the  Senate,  and  that  too  by  a  major 
ity  greater  than  the  ordinary  legislative  majority,  plainly 
excludes  the  necessity  of  congressional  concurrence.  If  the 
consent  of  Congress  to  any  treaty  had  been  intended,  the 
constitution  would  not  have  been  guilty  of  the  absurdity  of 
first  putting  a  treaty  for  ratification  to  the  President  arid 
Senate  exclusively,  and  again  to  the  same  President  and 
Senate  as  portions  of  the  legislature.  It  would  have  sub 
mitted  the  whole  matter  at  once  to  Congress,  and  the 
more  especially,  as  the  ratification  of  a  treaty  by  the  Senate, 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  343 

as  a  branch  of  the  legislature,  may  be  by  a  smaller  number 
than  a  ratification  of  it  by  the  same  body,  as  a  branch  of 
the  executive  government.  If  the  ratification  of  any  treaty 
by  the  President,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate, 
must  be  followed  by  a  legislative  ratification,  it  is  a  mere 
nonentity.  It  is  good  for  all  purposes,  or  for  none.  And  if 
it  be  nothing  in  effect,  it  is  a  mockery  by  which  nobody  would 
be  bound.  The  President  and  Senate  would  not  themselves 
be  bound  by  it — and  the  ratification  would  at  last  depend, 
not  upon  the  will  of  the  President  and  two-thirds  of  the 
Senate,  but  upon  the  will  of  a  bare  majority  of  the  two 
branches  of  the  legislature,  subject  to  the  qualified  legisla 
tive  control  of  the  President. 

Upon  the  power  of  the  President  and  Senate,  therefore, 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  The  only  question  is  as  to  the  ex 
tent  of  it,  or  in  other  words,  as  to  the  subject  upon  which 
it  may  be  exerted.  The  effect  of  the  power,  when  exerted 
within  its  lawful  sphere,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  controversy. 
The  constitution  has  declared,  that  whatsoever  amounts  to 
a  treaty,  made  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States, 
shall  immediately  be  supreme  law.  It  has  contradistin 
guished  a  treaty  as  law  from  an  act  of  Congress  as  law.  It 
has  erected  treaties,  so  contradistinguished,  into  a  binding 
judicial  rule.  It  has  given  them  to  our  courts  of  justice,  in 
defining  their  jurisdiction,  as  a  portion  of  the  lex  terra, 
which  they  are  to  interpret  and  enforce.  In  a  word,  it  has 
communicated  to  them,  if  ratified  by  the  department  which 
it  has  specially  provided  for  the  making  of  them,  the  rank 
of  law,  or  it  has  spoken  without  meaning.  And  if  it  has 
not  elevated  them  to  that  rank,  it  is  idle  to  attempt  to 
raise  them  to  it  by  ordinary  legislation. 

Upon  the  extent  of  the  power,  or  the  subjects  upon 
which  it  may  act,  there  is  as  little  room  for  controversy. 
The  power  is  to  make  treaties.  The  word  treaties  is  nomen 
generalissimum,  and  will  comprehend  commercial  treaties, 


344  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNET. 

unless  there  be  a  limit  upon  it  by  which  they  are  excluded. 
It  is  the  appellative,  which  will  take  in  the  whole  species,  if 
there  be  nothing  to  narrow  its  scope.  There  is  no  such 
limit.  There  is  not  a  syllable  in  the  context  of  the  clause 
to  restrict  the  natural  import  of  its  phraseology.  The 
power  is  left  to  the  force  of  the  generic  term,  and  is,  there 
fore,  as  wide  as  a  treaty-making  power  can  be.  It  em 
braces  all  the  varieties  of  treaties  which  it  could  be  sup 
posed  this  government  could  find  it  necessary  or  proper  to 
make,  or  it  embraces  none.  It  covers  the  whole  treaty- 
making  ground  which  this  government  could  be  expected  to 
occupy,  or  not  an  inch  of  it. 

It  is  a  just  presumption,  that  it  was  designed  to  be  co 
extensive  with  all  the  exigencies  of  our  affairs.  Usage 
sanctions  that  presumption — expediency  does  the  same. 
The  omission  of  any  exception  to  the  power,  the  omission  of 
the  designation  of  a  mode  by  which  a  treaty,  not  intended 
to  be  included  within  it,  might  otherwise  be  made,  confirms 
it.  That  a  commercial  treaty  was,  above  all  others,  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  constitution,  is  manifest.  The  imme 
morial  practice  of  Europe,  and  particularly  of  the  nation 
from  which  we  emigrated,  the  consonance  of  enlightened 
theory  to  that  practice,  prove  it.  It  may  be  said,  indeed, 
that  at  the  epoch  of  the  birth  of  our  constitution,  the  neces 
sity  for  a  power  to  make  commercial  treaties  was  scarcely 
visible,  for  that  our  trade  was  then  in  its  infancy.  It  was 
so  ;  but  it  was  the  infancy  of  another  Hercules,  promising, 
not  indeed  a  victory  over  the  lion  of  Nema^a,  or  the  boar  of 
Erymanthus,  but  the  peaceful  conquest  of  every  sea  which 
could  be  subjected  to  the  dominion  of  commercial  enterprise. 
It  was  then  as  apparent  as  it  is  now,  that  the  destinies  of 
this  great  nation  were  irrevocably  commercial  ;  that  the 
ocean  would  be  whitened  by  our  sails,  and  the  ultima  Thule 
of  the  world  compelled  to  witness  the  more  than  Phoenician 
spirit  and  intelligence  of  our  merchants.  With  this  glo- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  345 

rious  anticipation  dawning  upon  them — with  this  resplen 
dent  Aurora  gilding  the  prospect  of  the  future  ;  nay,  with 
the  risen  orb  of  trade  illuminating  the  vast  horizon  of  Ame 
rican  greatness,  it  cannot  he  supposed  that  the  framers  of 
the  constitution  did  not  look  to  the  time  when  we  should  be 
called  upon  to  make  commercial  conventions.  It  needs 
not  the  aid  of  the  imagination  to  reject  this  disparaging  and 
monstrous  supposition.  Dulness  itself,  throwing  aside  the 
lethargy  of  its  character,  and  rising  for  a  passing  moment 
to  the  rapture  of  enthusiasm,  will  disclaim  it  with  indig 
nation. 

It  is  said,  however,  that  the  constitution  has  given  to 
Congress  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na 
tions  ;  and  that,  since  it  would  be  inconsistent  with  that  power, 
thai*  the  President,  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  should 
do  the  same  thing,  it  follows,  that  this  power  of  Congress  is 
an  exception  out  of  the  treaty-making  power.  Never  were 
premises,  as  it  appears  to  my  understanding,  less  suited  to 
the  conclusion.  The  power  of  Congress  to  regulate  our  fo 
reign  trade,  is  a  power  of  municipal  legislation,  and  was 
designed  to  operate  as  far,  as,  upon  such  a  subject,  munici 
pal  legislation  can  reach.  Without  such  a  power,  the  gov 
ernment  would  be  wholly  inadequate  to  the  ends  for  which  it 
was  instituted.  A  power  to  regulate  commerce  by  treaty 
alone,  would  touch  only  a  portion  of  the  subject.  A  wider 
and  more  general  power  was  therefore  indispensable,  and  it 
was  properly  devolved  on  Congress,  as  the  legislature  of 
the  Union. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  power  of  mere  municipal  legisla 
tion,  acting  upon  views  exclusively  our  own,  having  no  re 
ference  to  a  reciprocation  of  advantages  by  arrangements  with 
a  foreign  state,  would  also  fall  short  of  the  ends  of  govern 
ment  in  a  country  of  which  the  commercial  relations  are 
complex  and  extensive,  and  liable  to  be  embarrassed  by 
conflicts  between  its  own  interests  and  those  of  other  na- 


346  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

tions.  That  the  power  of  Congress  is  simply  legislative  in 
the  strictest  sense,  and  calculated  for  ordinary  domestic  regu 
lation  only,  is  plain  from  the  language  in  which  it  is  com 
municated.  There  is  nothing  in  that  language  which  indi 
cates  regulation,  by  compact  or  compromise,  nothing  which 
points  to  the  co-operation  of  a  foreign  power,  nothing  which 
designates  a  treaty-making  faculty.  It  is  not  connected 
with  any  of  the  necessary  accompaniments  of  that  faculty  ; 
it  is  not  furnished  with  any  of  those  means,  without  which 
it  is  impossible  to  make  the  smallest  progress  towards  a 
treaty. 

It  is  self-evident,  that  a  capacity  to  regulate  com 
merce  by  treaty,  was  intended  by  the  constitution  to 
be  lodged  somewhere.  It  is  just  as  evident,  that  the  legis 
lative  capacity  of  Congress  does  not  amount  to  it  ;  "and 
cannot  be  exerted  to  produce  a  treaty.  It  can  produce  only 
a  statute,  with  which  a  foreign  state  cannot  be  made  to 
concur,  and  which  will  not  yield  to  any  modifications  which 
a  foreign  state  may  desire  to  impress  upon  it  for  suitable 
equivalents.  There  is  no  way  in  which  Congress,  as  such, 
can  mould  its  laws  into  treaties,  if  it  respects  the  constitu 
tion.  It  may  legislate  and  counter-legislate  ;  but  it  must 
for  ever  be  beyond  its  capacity  to  combine  in  a  law,  emanat 
ing  from  its  separate  domestic  authority,  its  own  views  with 
those  of  other  governments,  and  to  produce  a  harmonious 
reconciliation  of  those  jarring  purposes  and  discordant  ele 
ments  which  it  is  the  business  of  negotiation  to  adjust. 

I  reason  thus,  then,  upon  this  part  of  the  subject.  It  is 
clear  that  the  power  of  Congress,  as  to  foreign  commerce,  is 
only  what  it  professes  to  be  in  the  constitution,  a  legislative 
power,  to  be  exerted  municipally  without  consultation  or 
agreement  with  those  with  whom  we  have  an  intercourse  of 
trade  ;  it  is  undeniable  that  the  constitution  meant  to  pro 
vide  for  the  exercise  of  another  power  relatively  to  com 
merce,  which  should  exert  itself  in  concert  with  the  analo- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  347 

gous  power  in  other  countries,  and  should  bring  about  its 
results,  not  by  statute  enacted  by  itself,  but  by  an  inter 
national  compact  called  a  treaty ;  that  it  is  manifest,  that 
this  other  power  is  vested  by  the  constitution  in  the  Presi 
dent  and  Senate,  the  only  department  of  the  government 
which  it  authori^s  to  make  any  treaty,  and  which  it  enables 
to  make  all  treaties  ;  that  if  it  be  so  vested,  its  regular  ex 
ercise  must  result  in  that  which,  as  far  as  it  reaches,  is  law 
in  itself,  and  consequently  repeals  such  municipal  regula 
tions  as  stand  in  its  way,  since  it  is  expressly  declared  by 
the  constitution  that  treaties  regularly  made  shall  have,  as 
they  ought  to  have,  the  force  of  law.  In  all  this,  I  perceive 
nothing  to  perplex  or  alarm  us.  It  exhibits  a  well  digested 
and  uniform  plan  of  government,  worthy  of  the  excellent 
men  by  whom  it  was  formed.  The  ordinary  power  to  regu 
late  commerce  by  statutory  enactments,  could  only  be  de 
volved  upon  Congress,  possessing  all  the  other  legislative 
powers  of  the  government.  The  extraordinary  power  to  re 
gulate  it  by  treaty,  could  not  be  devolved  upon  Congress, 
because  from  its  composition,  and  the  absence  of  all  those 
authorities  and  functions  which  are  essential  to  the  activity 
and  effect  of  a  treaty-making  power,  it  was  not  calculated 
to  be  the  depository  of  it.  It  was  wise  and  consistent  to 
place  the  extraordinary  power  to  regulate  commerce  by 
treaty,  where  the  residue  of  the  treaty-making  power  was 
placed,  where  only  the  means  of  negotiation  could  be  found, 
and  the  skilful  and  beneficial  use  of  them  could  reasonably 
be  expected. 

That  Congress  legislates  upon  commerce,  subject  to  the 
treaty-making  power,  is  a  position  perfectly  intelligible  ;  but 
the  understanding  is  in  some  degree  confounded  by  the  other 
proposition,  that  the  legislative  power  of  Congress  is  an  ex 
ception  out  of  the  treaty-making  power.  It  introduces  into 
the  constitution  a  strange  anomaly — a  commercial  state,  with 
a  written  constitution,  and  no  power  in  it  to  regulate  its 


348  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

trade,  in  conjunction  with  other  states,  in  the  universal  mode 
of  convention.  It  will  be  in  vain  to  urge,  that  this  anomaly 
is  merely  imaginary  ;  for  that  the  President  and  Senate  may 
make  a  treaty  of  commerce  for  the  consideration  of  Con 
gress.  The  answer  is,  that  the  treaties  which  the  President 
and  Senate  are  entitled  to  make,  are  such,  as  when  made, 
become  a  law  ;  that  it  is  no  part  of  their  functions  simply 
to  initiate  treaties,  but  conclusively  to  make  them  ;  and 
that  where  they  have  no  power  to  make  them,  there  is  no 
provision  in  the  constitution,  how  or  by  whom  they  shall  be 
made. 

That  there  is  nothing  new  in  the  idea  of  a  separation  of 
the  legislative  and  conventional  powers  upon  commercial 
subjects,  and  of  the  necessary  control  of  the  former  by  the 
latter,  is  known  to  all  who  are  acquainted  with  the  constitu 
tion  of  England.  The  parliament  of  that  country  enacts 
the  statutes  by  which  its  trade  is  regulated  municipally. 
The  crown  modifies  them  by  a  treaty.  It  has  been  ima 
gined,  indeed,  that  parliament  is  in  the  practice  of  confirm 
ing  such  treaties  ;  but  the  fact  is  undoubtedly  otherwise. 
Commercial  treaties  are  laid  before  parliament,  because  the 
king's  ministers  are  responsible  for  their  advice  in  the  mak 
ing  of  them,  and  because  the  vast  range  and  complication  of 
the  English  laws  of  trade  and  revenue,  render  legislation 
unavoidable,  not  for  the  ratification,  but  the  execution  of 
their  commercial  treaties. 

It  is  suggested,  again,  that  the  treaty-making  power 
(unless  we  are  tenants  in  common  of  it  with  the  President 
and  Senate,  to  the  extent  at  least  of  our  legislative  rights) 
is  a  pestilent  monster,  pregnant  with  all  sorts  of  disasters  I 
It  teems  with  "  Gorgons,  and  Hydras,  and  Chimeras  dire  ! " 
At  any  rate,  I  may  take  for  granted  that  the  case  before  us 
does  not  justify  this  array  of  metaphor  and  fable  ;  since  we 
are  all  agreed  that  the  convention  with  England  is  not  only 
harmless  but  salutary.  To  put  this  particular  case,  how- 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  349 

ever,  out  of  the  argument,  what  have  we  to  do  with  consi 
derations  like  these  ?  are  we  here  to  form,  or  to  submit  to, 
the  constitution  as  it  has  been  given  to  us  for  a  rule  by 
those  who  are  our  masters  ?  Can  we  take  upon  ourselves 
the  office  of  political  casuists,  and  because  we  think  that  a 
power  ought  to  be  less  than  it  is,  compel  it  to  shrink  to  our 
standard  ?  Are  we  to  bow  with  reverence  before  the  na 
tional  will  as  the  constitution  displays  it,  or  to  fashion  it  to 
our  own,  to  quarrel  with  that  charter,  without  which  we 
ourselves  are  nothing  ;  or  to  take  it  as  a  guide  which  we 
cannot  desert  with  innocence  and  safety  ?  But  why  is  the 
treaty-making  power,  lodged,  as  I  contend  it  is,  in  the  Pre 
sident  and  Senate,  likely  to  disaster  us,  as  we  are  required 
to  apprehend  it  will  ?  Sufficient  checks  have  not,  as  it 
seems,  been  provided,  either  by  the  constitution  or  the  na 
ture  of  things,  to  prevent  the  abuse  of  it.  It  is  in  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives  alone,  that  the  amulet,  which  bids 
defiance  to  the  approaches  of  political  disease,,  or  cures  it 
when  it  has  commenced,  can  in  all  vicissitudes  be  found.  I 
hold  that  the  checks  are  sufficient,  without  the  charm  of  our 
legislative  agency,  for  all  those  occasions  which  wisdom  is 
bound  to  foresee  and  to  guard  against  ;  and  that  as  to  the 
rest  (the  eccentricities  and  portents  which  no  ordinary 
checks  can  deal  with)  the  occasions  must  provide  for  them 
selves. 

It  is  natural,  here,  to  ask  of  gentlemen,  what  security 
they  would  have  ?  They  cannot  "  take  a  bond  of  Fate  ;" 
and  they  have  every  pledge  which  is  short  of  it.  Have  they 
not,  as  respects  the  President,  all  the  security  upon  which 
they  rely  from  day  to  day  for  the  discreet  and  upright  dis 
charge  of  the  whole  of  his  other  duties,  many  and  various  as 
they  are  ?  What  security  have  they  that  he  will  not  ap 
point  to  office  the  refuse  of  the  world  ;  that  he  will  not  pol 
lute  the  sanctuary  of  justice  by  calling  vagabonds  to  its  holy 
ministry,  instead  of  adorning  it  with  men  like  those  who 


350  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNET. 

now  give  to  the  bench  more  dignity  than  they  receive  from 
it :  that  he  will  not  enter  into  a  treaty  of  amnesty  with 
every  conspirator  against  law  and  order,  and  pardon  culprits 
from  mere  enmity  to  virtue  ?  The  security  for  all  this,  and 
infinitely  more,  is  found  in  the  constitution  and  in  the  or 
der  of  nature  ;  and  we  are  all  satisfied  with  it.  One  should 
think  that  the  same  security,  which  thus  far  time  has  not 
discredited,  might  be  sufficient  to  tranquillize  us  upon  the 
score  of  the  power  which  we  are  now  considering. 

We  talk  of  ourselves  as  if  we  only  were  the  representa 
tives  of  the  people.  But  the  first  magistrate  of  this  country 
is  also  the  representative  of  the  people,  the  creature  of  their 
sovereignty,  the  administrator  of  their  power,  their  steward 
and  servant,  as  you  are — he  comes  from  the  people,  is  lifted 
by  them  into  place  and  authority,  and  after  a  short  season 
returns  to  them  for  censure  or  applause.  There  is  no  ana 
logy  between  such  a  magistrate  and  the  hereditary  monarchs 
of  Europe.  He  is  not  born  to  the  inheritance  of  office  ;  he 
cannot  even  be  elected  until  he  has  reached  an  age  at  which 
he  must  pass  for  what  he  is  ;  until  his  habits  have  been 
formed,  his  integrity  tried,  his  capacity  ascertained,  his  cha 
racter  discussed  and  probed  for  a  series  of  years,  by  a  press, 
which  knows  none  of  the  restraints  of  European  policy.  He 
acts,  as  you  do,  in  the  full  view  of  his  constituents,  and  un 
der  the  consciousness  that  on  account  of  the  singleness  of  his 
station,  all  eyes  are  upon  him.  He  knows,  too,  as  well  as 
you  can  know,  the  temper  and  intelligence  of  those  for 
whom  he  acts,  and  to  whom  he  is  amenable.  He  cannot 
hope  that  they  will  be  blind  to  the  vices  of  his  administra 
tion  on  subjects  of  high  concernment  and  vital  interest  ;  and 
in  proportion  as  he  acts  upon  his  own  responsibility,  unre 
lieved  and  undiluted  by  the  infusion  of  ours,  is  the  danger 
of  ill-advised  conduct  likely  to  be  present  to  his  mind. 

Of  all  the  powers  which  have  been  intrusted  to  him, 
there  is  none  to  which  the  temptations  to  abuse  belong  so 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  351 

little  as  to  the  treaty-making  power  in  all  its  branches  ; 
none  which  can  hoast  such  mighty  safeguards  in  the  feel 
ings,  and  views,  and  passions  which  even  a  misanthrope 
could  attribute  to  the  foremost  citizen  of  this  republic.  He 
can  have  no  motive  to  palsy  by  a  commercial  or  any  other 
treaty  the  prosperity  of  his  country.  Setting  apart  the  re 
straints  of  honour  and  patriotism,  which  are  the  character 
istic  of  public  men  in  a  nation  habitually  free,  could  he  do 
so  without  subjecting  himself  as  a  member  of  the  com 
munity  (to  say  nothing  of  his  immediate  connections)  to  the 
evils  of  his  own  work  ?  A  commercial  treaty^  too,  is  al 
ways  a  conspicuous  measure.  It  speaks  for  itself.  It  can 
not  take  the  garb  of  hypocrisy,  and  shelter  itself  from  the 
scrutiny  of  a  vigilant  and  well  instructed  population.  If  it 
be  bad,  it  will  be  condemned,  and  if  dishonestly  made,  be 
execrated.  The  pride  of  country,  moreover,  which  animates 
even  the  lowest  of  mankind,  is  here  a  peculiar  pledge  for  the 
provident  and  wholesome  exercise  of  power.  There  is  not  a 
consideration  by  which  a  cord  in  the  human  breast  can  be 
made  to  vibrate  that  is  not  in  this  case  the  ally  of  duty. 
Every  hope,  either  lofty  or  humble,  that  springs  forward  to 
the  future  ;  even  the  vanity  which  looks  not  beyond  the  mo 
ment  ;  the  dread  of  shame  and  the  love  of  glory ;  the  in 
stinct  of  ambition ;  the  domestic  affections  ;  the  cold  pon- 
derings  of  prudence  ;  and  the  ardent  instigations  of  senti 
ment  and  passion,  are  all  on  the  side  of  duty.  It  is  in  the 
exercise  of  this  power  that  responsibility  to  public  opinion, 
which  even  despotism  feels  and  truckles  to,  is  of  gigantic 
force.  If  it  were  possible,  as  I  am  sure  it  is  not,  that  an 
American  citizen,  raised,  upon  the  credit  of  a  long  life  of 
virtue,  to  a  station  so  full  of  honor,  could  feel  a  disposition 
to  mingle  the  little  interests  of  a  perverted  ambition  with 
the  great  concerns  of  his  country,  as  embraced  by  a  com 
mercial  treaty,  and  to  sacrifice  her  happiness  and  power  by 
the  stipulations  of  that  treaty,  to  flatter  or  aggrandize  a  fo- 


352  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

reign  state,  he  would  still  be  saved  from  the  perdition  of 
such  a  course,  not  only  by  constitutional  checks,  but  by  the 
irresistible  efficacy  of  responsibility  to  public  opinion,  in  a 
nation  whose  public  opinion  wears  no  mask,  and  will  not  be 
silenced.  He  would  remember  that  his  political  career  is 
but  the  thing  of  an  hour,  and  that  when  it  has  passed  he 
must  descend  to  the  private  station  from  which  he  rose,  the 
object  either  of  love  and  veneration,  or  of  scorn  and  horror. 
If  we  cast  a  glance  at  England,  we  shall  not  fail  to  see  the 
influence  of  public  opinion  upon  an  hereditary  king,  an 
hereditary  nobility,  and  a  House  of  Commons  elected  in  a 
great  degree  by  rotten  boroughs,  and  overflowing  with  place 
men.  And  if  this  influence  is  potent  there  against  all  the 
efforts  of  independent  power  and  wide  spread  corruption,  it 
must  in  this  country  be  omnipotent. 

But  the  treaty-making  power  of  the  President  is  further 
checked  by  the  necessity  of  the  concurrence  of  two-thirds  of 
the  Senate,  consisting  of  men  selected  by  the  legislatures  of 
the  States,  themselves  elected  by  the  people.  They  too 
must  have  passed  through  the  probation  of  time  before  they 
can  be  chosen,  and  must  bring  with  them  every  title  to  con 
fidence.  The  duration  of  their  office  is  that  of  a  few  years  ; 
their  numbers  are  considerable  ;  their  constitutional  respon 
sibility  as  great  as  it  can  be  ;  and  their  moral  responsibility 
beyond  all  calculation. 

The  power  of  impeachment  has  been  mentioned  as  a 
check  upon  the  President  in  the  exercise  of  the  treaty-mak 
ing  capacity.  I  rely  upon  it  less  than  upon  others,  of,  as  I 
think,  a  better  class  ;  but  as  the  constitution  places  some  re 
liance  upon  it,  so  do  I.  It  has  been  said,  that  impeachment 
has  been  tried  and  found  wanting.  Two  impeachments  have 
failed,  as  I  have  understood,  (that  of  a  judge  was  one) — but 
they  may  have  failed  for  reasons  consistent  with  the  general 
efficacy  of  such  a  proceeding.  I  know  nothing  of  their  merits, 
but  I  am  justified  in  supposing  that  the  evidence  was  defec- 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  353 

tive,  or  that  the  parties  were  innocent  as  they  were  pro 
nounced  to  be  : — Of  this,  however,  I  feel  assured,  that  if  it 
should  ever  happen  that  the  President  is  found  to  deserve 
the  punishment  which  impeachment  seeks  to  inflict,  (even 
for  making  a  treaty  to  which  the  judges  have  become  parties,) 
and  this  body  should  accuse  him  in  a  constitutional  way,  he 
will  not  easily  escape.  But,  be  that  as  it  may,  I  ask  if  it  is 
nothing  that  you  have  power  to  arraign  him  as  a  culprit  ? 
Is  it  nothing  that  you  can  bring  him  to  the  bar,  expose  his 
misconduct  to  the  world,  and  bring  down  the  indignation  of 
the  public  upon  him  and  those  who  dare  to  acquit  him  ? 

If  there  be  any  power  explicitly  granted  by  the  constitu 
tion  to  Congress,  it  is  that  of  declaring  war ;  and  if  there  be 
any  exercise  of  human  legislation  more  solemn  and  important 
than  another,  it  is  a  declaration  of  war.  For  expansion  it  is 
the  largest,  for  effect  the  most  awful  of  all  the  enactments 
to  which  Congress  is  competent ;  and  it  always  is,  or  ought 
to  be,  preceded  by  grave  and  anxious  deliberation.  This 
power,  too,  is  connected  with,  or  virtually  involves,  others  of 
high  import  and  efficacy;  among  which  may  be  ranked  the 
power  of  granting  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  of  regulat 
ing  captures,  of  prohibiting  intercourse  with,  or  the  accept 
ance  of  protections  or  licenses  from  the  enemy.  Yet  farther; 
a  power  to  declare  war  implies,  with  peculiar  emphasis,  a 
negative  upon  all  power,  in  any  other  branch  of  the  govern 
ment,  inconsistent  with  the  full  and  continuing  effect  of  it.  A 
power  to  make  peace  in  any  other  branch  of  the  government, 
is  utterly  inconsistent  with  that  full  and  continuing  effect. 
It  may  even  prevent  it  from  having  any  effect  at  all ;  since 
peace  may  follow  almost  immediately  (although  it  rarely  does 
so  follow)  the  commencement  of  a  war.  If,  therefore,  it  be 
undeniable  that  the  President,  with  the  advice  and  consent 
of  the  Senate,  has  power  to  make  a  treaty  of  peace,  available 
ipso  jure,  it  is  undeniable  that  he  has  power  to  repeal,  by 
the  mere  operation  of  such  a  treaty,  the  highest  acts  of  con- 
23 


354  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

gressional  legislation.  And  it  will  not  be  questioned  that 
this  repealing  power  is,  from  the  eminent  nature  of  the  war- 
declaring  power,  less  fit  to  be  made  out  by  inference  than 
the  power  of  modifying  by  treaty  the  laws  which  regulate 
our  foreign  trade.  Now  the  President,  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate,  has  an  incontestable  and  uncoritested 
right  to  make  a  treaty  of  peace,  of  absolute  inherent  efficacy, 
and  that  too  in  virtue  of  the  very  same  general  provision,  in 
the  constitution  which  the  refinements  of  political  speculation, 
rather  than  any  known  rules  of  construction,  have  led  some 
of  us  to  suppose  excludes  a  treaty  of  commerce. 

By  what  process  of  reasoning  will  you  be  able  to  extract 
from  the  wide  field  of  that  general  provision  the  obnoxious 
case  of  a  commercial  treaty,  without  forcing  along  with  it 
the  case  of  a  treaty  of  peace,  and  along  with  that  again  the 
case  of  every  possible  treaty  ?  Will  you  rest  your  distinction 
upon  the  favorite  idea  that  a  treaty  cannot  repeal  laws  com 
petently  enacted,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  expressed,  cannot 
trench  upon  the  legislative  rights  of  Congress  ?  Such  a  dis 
tinction  not  only  seems  to  be  reproached  by  all  the  theories, 
numerous  as  they  are,  to  which  this  bill  has  given  birth,  but 
is  against  notorious  fact  and  recent  experience.  We  have 
lately  witnessed  the  operation  in  this  respect  of  a  treaty  of 
peace,  and  could  not  fail  to  draw  from  it  this  lesson ;  that 
no  sooner  does  the  President  exert,  with  the  consent  of  the 
Senate,  his  power  to  make  such  a  treaty,  than  your  war-de 
nouncing  law,  your  act  for  letters  of  marque,  your  prohibit 
ory  statutes 'as  to  intercourse  and  licenses,  and  all  the  other 
concomitant  and  dependent  statutes,  so  far  as  they  affect  the 
national  relations  with  a  foreign  enemy,  pass  away  as  a  dream, 
and  in  a  moment  are  '  with  years  beyond  the  flood.'  Your 
auxiliary  agency  was  not  required  in  the  production  of  this 
effect ;  and  I  have  not  heard  that  you  even  tendered  it.  You 
saw  your  laws  departing  as  it  were  from  the  statute  books, 
expelled  from  the  strong  hold  of  supremacy  by  the  single 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  355 

force  of  a  treaty  of  peace  ;  and  you  did  not  attempt  to  stay 
them ;  you  did  not  bid  them  linger  until  you  should  bid  them 
go  ;  you  neither  put  your  shoulders  to  the  wheel  of  expulsion 
nor  made  an  effort  to  retard  it.  In  a  word,  you  did  nothing. 
You  suffered  them  to  flee  as  a  shadow,  and  you  know  that 
they  were  reduced  to  shadow,  not  by  the  necromancy  of 
usurpation,  but  by  the  energy  of  constitutional  power.  Yet, 
you  had  every  reason  for  interference  then  which  you  can 
have  now.  The  power  to  make  a  treaty  of  peace  stands  upon 
the  same  constitutional  footing  with  the  power  to  make  a 
commercial  treaty.  It  is  given  by  the  same  words.  It  is 
exerted  in  the  same  manner.  It  produces  the  same  conflict 
with  municipal  legislation.  The  ingenuity  of  man  cannot 
urge  a  consideration,  whether  upon  the  letter  or  the  spirit  of 
the  constitution,  against  the  existence  of  a  power  in  the  Pres 
ident  and  Senate  to  make  a  valid  commercial  treaty,  which 
will  not,  if  it  be  correct  and  sound,  drive  us  to  the  negation 
of  the  power  exercised  by  the  President  and  Senate,  with 
universal  approbation,  to  make  a  valid  treaty  of  peace. 

Nay,  the  whole  treaty-making  power  will  be  blotted  from 
the  constitution,  and  a  new  one,  alien  to  its  theory  and  prac 
tice,  be  made  to  supplant  it,  if  sanction  and  scope  be  given 
to  the  principles  of  this  bill.  This  bill  may  indeed  be  con 
sidered  as  the  first  of  many  assaults,  not  now  intended  per 
haps,  but  not  therefore  the  less  likely  to  happen,  by  which 
the  treaty-making  power,  as  created  and  lodged  by  the  con 
stitution,  will  be  pushed  from  its  place,  and  compelled  to 
abide  with  the  po\ver  of  ordinary  legislation.  The  example 
of  this  bill  is  beyond  its.  ostensible  limits.  The  pernicious 
principle,  of  which  it  is  at  once  the  child  and  the  apostle, 
must  work  onward  and  to  the  right  and  the  left  until  it  has 
exhausted  itself ;  and  it  never  can  exhaust  itself  until  it  has 
gathered  into  the  vortex  of  the  legislative  powers  of  Con 
gress  the  whole  treaty-making  capacity  of  the  government. 
For  if,  notwithstanding  the  directness  and  precision  with 


356  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

which  the  constitution  has  marked  out  the  department  of  the 
government  by  which  it  wills  that  treaties  shall  be  made,  and 
has  declared  that  treaties  so  made  shall  have  the  force  and 
dignity  of  law,  the  House  of  Kepresentatives  can  insist  upon 
some  participation  in  that  high  faculty,  upon  the  simple 
suggestion  that  they  are  sharers  in  legislative  power  upon 
the  subjects  embraced  by  any  given  treaty,  what  remains  to 
be  done,  for  the  transfer  to  Congress  of  the  entire  treaty- 
making  faculty,  as  it  appears  in  the  constitution,  but  to  show 
that  Congress  have  legislative  power  direct  or  indirect  upon 
every  matter  which  a  treaty  can  touch  ?  And  what  are  the 
matters  within  the  practicable  range  of  a  treaty,  which  your 
laws  cannot  either  mould,  or  qualify,  or  influence  ?  Imagi 
nation  has  been  tasked  for  example,  by  which  this  question 
might  be  answered.  It  is  admitted  that  they  must  be  few, 
and  we  have  been  told,  as  I  think,  of  no  more  than  one.  It 
is  the  case  of  contraband  of  ivar.  This  case  has,  it  seems, 
the  double  recommendation  of  being  what  is  called  an  inter 
national  case,  and  a  case  beyond  the  utmost  grasp  of  congres 
sional  legislation.  I  remark  upon  it,  that  it  is  no  more  an 
international  case  than  any  matter  of  collision  incident  to 
the  trade  of  two  nations  with  each  other.  I  remark  farther, 
that  a  treaty  upon  the  point  of  contraband  of  war  may  in 
terfere,  as  well  as  any  other  treaty,  with  an  act  of  Congress. 
A  law  encouraging,  by  a  bounty  or  otherwise,  the  exporta 
tion  of  certain  commodities,  would  be  counteracted  by  an 
insertion  into  the  list  of  contraband  of  war,  in  a  treaty  with 
England  or  France,  any  one  of  those  commodities.  The 
treaty  would  look  one  way,  the  law  another.  And  various 
modes  might  readily  be  suggested  in  which  Congress  might 
so  legislate  as  to  lay  the  foundation  of  repugnancy  between 
its  laws  and  the  treaties  of  the  President  and  Senate  with 
reference  to  contraband.  I  deceive  myself  greatly  if  a  sub 
ject  can  be  named  upon  which  a  like  repugnancy  might  not 
occur.  But  even  if  it  should  be  practicable  to  furnish,  after 


LIFE  OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  357 

laborious  inquiry  and  meditation,  a  meagre  and  scanty  in 
ventory  of  some  half  dozen  topics,  to  which  domestic  legisla 
tion  cannot  be  made  to  extend,  will  it  be  pretended  that 
such  was  the  insignificant  and  narrow  domain  designed  by 
the  constitution  for  the  treaty-making  power  ?  It  would 
appear  that  there  is  with  some  gentlemen  a  willingness  to 
distinguish  between  the  legislative  power  expressly  granted 
to  Congress  and  that  which  is  merely  implied,  and  to  admit 
that  a  treaty  may  control  the  results  of  the  latter.  I  reply 
to  those  gentlemen  that  one  legislative  power  is  exactly 
equivalent  to  another,  and  that,  moreover,  the  whole  legisla 
tive  power  of  Congress  may  justly  be  said  to  be  expressly 
granted  by  the  constitution,  although  the  constitution  does 
not  enumerate  every  variety  of  its  exercise,  or  indicate  all  the 
ramifications  into  which  it  may  diverge  to  suit  the  exigencies 
of  the  times.  I  reply,  besides,  that  even  with  the  qualifica 
tion  of  this  vague  distinction,  whatever  may  be  its  value  or 
effect,  the  principle  of  the  bill  leaves  no  adequate  sphere  for 
the  treaty-making  power.  I  reply,  finally,  that  the  ac 
knowledged  operation  of  a  treaty  of  peace  in  repealing  laws 
of  singular  strength  and  unbending  character,  enacted  in 
virtue  of  powers  communicated  in  terminis  to  Congress,  gives 
the  distinction  to  the  winds. 

And  now  that  I  have  again  adverted  to  the  example  of  a 
treaty  of  peace,  let  me  call  upon  you  to  reflect  on  the  an 
swer  which  that  example  affords  to  all  the  warnings  we  have 
received  in  this  debate  against  the  mighty  danger  of  intrust 
ing  to  the  only  department  of  the  government,  which  the 
constitution  supposes  can  make  a  treaty,  the  incidental  pre 
rogative  of  a  repealing  legislation.  It  is  inconsistent,  we 
are  desired  to  believe,  with  the  genius  of  the  constitution, 
and  must  be  fatal  to  all  that  is  dear  to  freemen,  that  an  Ex 
ecutive  magistrate  and  a  Senate,  who  are  not  immediately 
elected  by  the  people,  should  possess  this  authority.  We 
hear  from  one  quarter  that  if  it  be  so,  the  public  liberty  is 


358  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

already  in  the  grave ;  and  from  another,  that  the  public  in 
terest  and  honor  are  upon  the  verge  of  it.  But  do  you  not 
perceive  that  this  picture  of  calamity  and  shame  is  the  mere 
figment  of  excited  fancy,  disavowed  by  the  constitution  as 
hysterical,  and  erroneous  in  the  case  of  a  treaty  of  peace  ? 
Do  you  not  see  that  if  there  be  any  thing  in  this  high  co 
lored  peril,  it  is  a  treaty  of  peace  that  must  realize  it  ? 
Can  we  in  this  view  compare  with  the  power  to  make  such  a 
treaty,  that  of  making  a  treaty  of  commerce  ?  Are  we 
unable  to  conjecture,  while  we  are  thus  brooding  over  antici 
pated  evils  which  can  never  happen,  that  the  lofty  character 
of  our  country  (which  is  but  another  name  for  strength  and 
power)  may  be  made  to  droop  by  a  mere  treaty  of  peace  ; 
that  the  national  pride  may  be  humbled  ;  the  just  hopes  of 
the  people  blasted  ;  their  courage  tamed  and  broken  ;  their 
prosperity  struck  to  the  heart  ;  their  foreign  rivals  encour 
aged  into  arrogance  and  tutored  into  encroachment,  by  a 
mere  treaty  of  peace  ?  I  confidently  trust  that,  as  this 
never  has  been  so,  it  will  never  be  so  ;  but  surely  it  is  just 
as  possible  as  that  a  treaty  of  commerce  should  ever  be  made 
to  shackle  the  freedom  of  this  nation,  or  check  its  march  to 
the  greatness  and  glory  that  await  it.  I  know  not,  indeed, 
how  it  can  seriously  be  thought  that  o'dr  liberties  are  in 
hazard  from  the  small  witchery  of  a  treaty  of  commerce, 
and  yet  in  none  from  the  potent  enchantments  by  which  a 
treaty  of  peace  may  strive  to  enthral  them.  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
conceive  by  what  form  of  words,  by  what  hitherto  unheard- 
of  stipulations,  a  commercial  treaty  is  to  barter  away  the 
freedom  of  United  America,  or  of  any  the  smallest  portion 
of  it.  I  cannot  figure  to  myself  the  possibility  that  such  a 
project  can  ever  find  its  way  into  the  head  or  heart  of  any 
man,  or  set  of  men,  whom  this  nation  may  select  as  the 
depositories  of  its  power  ;  but  I  am  quite  sure  that  an  at 
tempt  to  insert  such  a  project  in  a  commercial  treaty,  or  in 
any  other  treaty,  or  in  any  other  mode,  could  work  no  other 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY.  359 

effect  than  the  destruction  of  those  who  should  venture  to 
be  parties  to  it,  no  matter  whether  a  President,  Senate,  or  a 
whole  Congress.  Many  extreme  cases  have  been  put  for  illus 
tration  in  this  debate  ;  and  this  is  one  of  them  ;  and  I  take 
the  occasion  which  it  offers  to  mention,  that  to  argue  from 
extreme  cases  is  seldom  logical,  and  upon  a  question  of  inter 
pretation,  never  so.  We  can  only  bring  back  the  means  of 
delusion,  if  we  wander  into  the  regions  of  fiction,  and  ex 
plore  the  wilds  of  bare  possibility  in  search  of  rules  for  real 
life  and  actual  ordinary  cases.  By  arguing  from  the  possible 
abuse  of  power  against  the  use  or  existence  of  it,  you  may 
and  must  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  there  ought  not  be, 
and  is  not,  any  government  in  this  country,  or  in  the  world. 
Disorganization  and  anarchy  are  the  sole  consequences  that 
can  be  deduced  from  such  reasoning.  Who  is  it  that  may  not 
abuse  the  power  that  has  been  confided  to  him  ?  May  not 
we,  as  well  as  the  other  branches -of  the  government  ?  And 
if  we  may,  does  not  the  argument  from  extreme  cases 
prove  that  we  ought  to  have  no  power,  and  that  we 
have  no  power  ?  And  does  it  not,  therefore,  after  hav 
ing  served  for  an  instant  the  purposes  of  this  bill,  turn 
short  upon  and  condemn  its  whole  theory,  which  attri 
butes  to  us,  not  merely  the  power  which  is  our  own,  but 
inordinate  power,  to  be  gained  only  by  wresting  it  from 
others  ?  Our  constitutional  and  moral  security  against  the 
abuses  of  the  power  of  the  executive  government  have  al 
ready  been  explained.  I  will  only  add,  that  a  great  and  ma 
nifest  abuse  of  the  delegated  authority  to  make  treaties  would 
create  no  obligation  any  where.  If  ever  it  should  occur,  as  I 
confidently  believe  it  never  will,  the  evil  must  find  its  cor 
rective  in  the  wisdom  and  firmness,  not  of  this  body  only, 
but  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people  co-operating  with  it. 
It  is,  after  all,  in  the  people,  upon  whose  Atlantean  shoul 
ders  our  whole  republican  system  reposes,  that  you  must  ex 
pect  that  recuperative  power,  that  redeeming  and  regenerat- 


360  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINENEY. 

ing  spirit,  by  which  the  constitution  is  to  be  purified  and 
redintegrated  when  extravagant  abuse  has  cankered  it. 

In  addition  to  the  example  of  a  treaty  of  peace  which  I 
have  just  been  considering,  let  me  put  another,  of  which 
none  of  us  can  question  the  reality.  The  President  may 
exercise  the  power  of  pardoning,  save  only  in  the  case  of  im 
peachments.  The  power  of  pardoning  is  not  communicated 
by  words  more  precise  or  comprehensive  than  the  power  to 
make  treaties.  But  to  what  does  it  amount  ?  Is  not  every 
pardon,  pro  Jiac  vice,  a  repeal  of  the  penal  law  against 
which  it  gives  protection  ?  Does  it  not  ride  over  the  law, 
resist  its  command,  and  extinguish  its  effect  ?  Does  it  not 
even  control  the  combined  force  of  judicature  and  legisla 
tion  ?  Yet,  have  we  ever  heard  that  your  legislative  rights 
were  an  exception  out  of  the  prerogative  of  mercy  ?  Who 
has  ever  pretended  that  this  faculty  cannot,  if  regularly  ex 
erted,  wrestle  with  the  strongest  of  your  statutes  ?  I  may 
be  told,  that  the  pardoning  power  necessarily  imports  a  con 
trol  over  the  penal  code,  if  it  be  exercised  in  the  form  of  a 
pardon.  I  answer,  the  power  to  make  treaties  equally  im 
ports  a  power  to  put  out  of  the  way  such  parts  of  the  civil 
code  as  interfere  with  its  operation,  if  that  power  be  exerted 
in  the  form  of  a  treaty.  There  is  no  difference  in  their  es 
sence.  You  legislate,  in  both  cases,  subject  to  the  power. 
And  this  instance  furnishes  another  answer,  as  I  have  already 
intimated,  to  the  predictions  of  abuse,  with  which,  on  this 
occasion,  it  has  been  endeavored  to  appal  us.  The  pardoning 
power  is  in  the  President  alone.  He  is  not  even  checked  by 
the  necessity  of  Senatorial  concurrence.  He  may  by  his 
single  fiat  extract  the  sting  from  your  proudest  enactments 
— and  save  from  their  vengeance  a  convicted  offender. 

Sir,  you  have  my  general  notions  upon  the  bill  before 
you.  They  have  no  claim  to  novelty.  I  imbibed  them  from 
some  of  the  heroes  and  sages  who  survived  the  storm  of  that 
contest  to  which  America  was  summoned  in  her  cradle.  I 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  361 

imbibed  them  from  the  father  of  his  country.  My  under 
standing  approved  them,  with  the  full  concurrence  of  my 
heart,  when  I  was  much  younger  than  I  am  now  ;  and  I 
feel  no  disposition  to  discard  them,  now  that  age  and  feeble 
ness  are  about  to  overtake  me.  I  could  say  more — much 
more — upon  this  high  question  ;  but  I  want  health  and 
strength.  It  is,  perhaps,  fortunate  for  the  House  that  I  do  ; 
as  it  prevents  me  from  fatiguing  them  as  much  as  I  fatigue 
myself. 

I  have  searched  in  vain  for  the  authorship  of  the  "  Political 
Sketches/'  or  even  a  sight  of  the  book.  There  is  a  vague 
impression  on  my  mind,  that  it  was  the  production  of  one  of 
our  northern  stars.  But  whoever  the  author  may  be,  or  what 
may  have  become  of  the  work,  the  following  remarks  will 
reward  perusal.  It  is  a  most  masterly  dissertation  on  style  ; 
singularly  rich,  discriminating  and  profound.  Elevated  above 
the  asperity  of  captious  criticism  by  a  nice  and  accurate  per 
ception  of  true  beauty  and  force,  it  is  a  jewel  of  its  kind. 
For  imagination  in  its  highest  form  and  noblest  development 
Mr.  Pinkney  possessed  the  most  unbounded  admiration,  and 
gave  to  the  country  and  the  world  the  most  perfect  and  ex 
quisite  illustration  of  it.  But  for  it,  in  its  uncurbed  irreg 
ularity  and  mystical  drearnings,  he  expressed,  as  he  felt,  the 
most  unmixed  disgust  and  contempt. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Pinkney,  in  the  close 
of  this  article,  designed  to  intimate  that  Dr.  Johnson  wrote 
with  difficulty,  for  no  one  knew  better  than  he  the  actual  ra 
pidity  with  which  he  wrote  ;  but  only  to  reaffirm  what  John 
son  said  of  himself,  "  that  whenever  he  said  a  good  thing  he 
seemed  to  labor."  Dr.  Johnson,  speaking  of  Addison,  used 
to  say  that  he  was  the  Baiihael  of  essay  writers. 


362  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 


REMARKS  ON  "POLITICAL  SKETCHES.' 

BY   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

WHEN  I  first  perused  this  valuable  performance,  I  con 
demned  it  without  hesitation,  as  a  work  wherein  the  imagi 
nation  had  been  permitted  to  flutter  at  large,  unaccompa 
nied  by  the  judgment.  I  thought  the  great  subject  of  the 
author's  consideration  lightly  and  gracefully  handled  ;  and 
the  remarks  he  has  bestowed  on  Montesquieu,  at  the  end  of 
his  section  on  Virtue,  more  properly  applicable  to  himself. 
He  appeared  to  me  far  more  solicitous  to  please  his  reader  by 
a  labored  floridity  of  style,  and  a  succession  of  gay  images, 
than  to  enlighten  the  understanding,  by  accuracy  of  thought 
and  justness  of  conception. 

But  upon  a  more  attentive  perusal  of  his  work,  I  am 
thoroughly  convinced  of  its  merits.  As  far  as  I  am  able  to 
decide,  it  discovers  a  clear  discriminating  head — a  solidity  of 
reflection — an  acquaintance  with  history,  men,  and  the  prin 
ciples  of  government,  and  an  animated  fancy.  It  is  not  how 
ever  without  faults.  Want  of  originality  is  apparent  in  the 
two  sections  of  Virtue  and  Eeligion.  Again  ;  the  author's 
meaning  is  often  so  concealed  by  a  redundancy  of  uncommon 
and  figurative  expressions,  that  it  is  accessible  to  none,  but 
those  geniuses  whom  Johnson  speaks  of,  who  "grasp  a  sys 
tem  by  intuition/'  except  through  the  medium  of  unremitted 
application.  Perspicuity  is  frequently  sacrificed  to  that  anx 
iety  which  is  natural  to  a  young  writer,  of  strewing  over  his 
subject  with  the  flowers  of  rhetoric,  and  embellishing  reflec 
tion  with  the  graces  of  expression.  The  tinsel  of  Lexiphanic 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  363 

language  in  many  places  involves  his  argument  in  almost  in 
extricable  mystery,  and  pains  whom  it  was  intended  to  please, 
by  making  them  toil  for  instruction,  when  an  easy,  natural 
communication  was  practicable.  To  be  learnedly  incompre 
hensible  was  certainly  not  the  author's  intention.  He  wrote 
to  be  admired,  but  he  wrote  also  to  be  understood.  The 
cool  approbation  which  is  given  to  solidity  of  thought,  could 
not  content  him.  He  sought  by  splendid  imagery  to  gain 
that  tribute  of  approbation  from  the  heart,  which  is  given 
to  the  warm  glow  of  rhetoric.  But  nothing  more  complete 
ly  removes  an  argument  from  the  reach  of  general  compre 
hension,  than  what  is  commonly,  though  falsely  called,  an 
elegance  of  diction.  Paradoxically  as  it  may  sound,  its  very 
lustre  is  the  parent  of  darkness.  By  fascinating  the  imagi 
nation  it  monopolizes  the  attention,  and  the  plain  simplicity 
of  truth,  surrounded  by  the  dazzling  glitter  of  a  highly  col 
ored  style  escapes  the  eye  of  observation.  In  works  of  mere 
entertainment,  the  impropriety  of  this  species  of  writing  in 
some  measure  ceases  ;  but  surely  to  support  a  train  of  rea 
soning  in  such  a  manner  as  to 'oblige  a  majority  of  readers  to 
apply  almost  every  moment  to  a  dictionary,  upon  a  question, 
too,  where  the  nicety  of  discrimination  is  necessary  at  every 
turn,  to  destroy  apparent  analogies — where  the  under 
standing  (independent  of  the  obstacles  thrown  in  its  way  by 
perplexing  figures  and  unusual  words)  can  with  difficulty 
pursue  the  chain  of  reflection  ;  and  where,  in  the  combined 
consideration  of  human  nature,  facts,  and  principles,  the  con 
clusions  must  be  embarrassed  rather  than  illustrated,  if  not 
perspicuously  treated — is  at  least  impolitic  in  him  who  seeks 
to  lead  the  mind  to  information  and  conviction. 

In  the  world  of  taste,  the  plain  simple  language  of  Ad- 
dison  has  been  preferred  to  that  of  the  Kambler.  The 
periods  of  the  last  impress  us  with  the  painful  idea  of  labor  ; 
and  give  us  a  disagreeable  conception  of  a  tedious  process  by 


364  LIFE    OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

which  every  sentence  was  tortured  into  form.     I  would  ap 
ply  the  same  remark  to  the  Political  Sketches. 

When  the  ardor  of  our  author's  fancy  shall  have  cooled 
by  time — when  his  notions  of  a  writer's  true  reputation 
shall  have  become  juster — when  he  shall  have  learned  to 
prefer  that  style  which  explains  his  subject,  instead  of  plung 
ing  it  into  obscurity  ;  and  when  he  shall  be  convinced  that  to 
bury  the  matter  of  his  discussion  beneath  a  profusion  of 
gaudy  trappings,  is  only  the  affectation  of  elegance,  he  will 
in  all  probability  be  among  the  first  ornaments  of  the  liter 
ary  world,  and  do  honor  to  his  country  and  himself. 


I  come  now  to  consider  the  character  of  Mr.  Pinkney  as 
a  man  ;  to  sum  up  with  an  impartial  and  truthful  pen  those 
moral  and  intellectual  qualities  that  united  to  make  him  an 
ornament  of  society. 

His  personal  appearance  possessed  a  goodly  degree  of 
dignity  and  grace.  Tall  and  finely  formed,  with  a  head  ex 
quisitely  shaped,  forehead  high,  broad,  massive  and  slightly 
retreating,  eyes  of  the  softest  blue,  rather  heavy  in  repose, 
but  capable  of  the  intensest  and  most  varied  expression 
when  roused  in  the  excitement  of  debate,  a  mouth  of  un 
common  sweetness  and  flexibility,  soft  brown  hair,  scarcely 
tinged  with  gray  when  death  laid  him  low,  and  a  character 
istic  neatness  and  elegance  of  address — he  was  a  man  re 
markable  to  look  upon.  It  is  almost  amusing  to  glance  at 
the  caricature  of  him  published  many  years  ago  in  the  "  North 
American,"  and  one  can  only  smile  in  wonder  at  the 
strange  want  of  resemblance  it  exhibits. 

/  Affable  in  the  immediate  circle  of  his  friends,  he  was 
rather  inaccessible  to  strangers.  He  was  never  very  talk 
ative  ;  and  yet  when  disengaged  and  not  too  much  abstract 
ed  by  press  of  business,  he  was  the  life  and  light  of  society. 

On  such  occasions  his  wit  sparkled  and  flashed,  giving  to 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  P1NKNEY.  365 

his  conversation  a  nameless  and  indescribable  charm,  not 
unlike  intellectual  fascination.  His  very  taciturnity  gave  to 
his  colloquial  powers,  when  he  chose  to  exercise  them,  a 
more  remarkable  and  striking  effect.  He  was  a  great  ad 
mirer  of  ladies,  and  always  paid  a  marked  tribute  of  respect 
to  that  refinement  and  elegance  of  taste  and  intuitive  per 
ception,  which  constitute  at  once  the  beauty  and  marvel  of 
the  female  character.  No  one  knew  better  than  he  how  to 
draw  out  its  peculiar  powers,  and  elicit  to  advantage  its 
finer  and  softer  sensibilities.  During  his  frequent  visits  to 
Annapolis,  he  loved  to  while  away  an  hour  of  the  evening  in 
an  old  mansion,  which  was  the  home  of  elegance  and  the 
chief  centre  of  attraction,  the  residence  of  the  late  Mrs. 

L ,   a    lady   of  whom  it  were   impossible  to  speak 

without  seeming  exaggeration,  whose  loveliness  of  character 
was  only  equalled  by  her  vigor  of  intellect  and  suavity  of 
manners — who  in  life  was  the  honored  companion  of  the 
young  and  the  old  ;  and  at  whose  funeral  the  legislature  of 
Maryland  considered  it  a  sad  privilege  to  walk  as  mourners. 
For  this  lady,  and  the  circle  of  beauty  and  intelligence  that 
was  ever  congregated  around  her,  Mr.  Pinkney  entertained 
the  most  unbounded  admiration  ;  and  on  more  than  one  oc 
casion  of  public  interest,  in  the  discussion  of  the  forum,  did 
he  exhibit  his  sense  of  her  presence  by  a  display  of  eloquence 
which  he  knew  she  could  both  appreciate  and  understand. 
He  never  presumed  to  talk  nonsense  to  ladies,  or  lowered 
himself,  as  some  great  men  are  wont  to  do,  to  the  supposed 
measure  of  their  ability,  for  he  was  one  of  those  who  be 
lieved  them  to  be  in  all  respects,  by  character,  education, 
and  intellect,  worthy  of  the  companionship  of  those  who  are 
so  much  dependant  upon  them  for  sympathy  and  support. 
He  had  without  doubt  formed  his  opinion  6Y  the  mind  and 
heart  of  woman  from  the  noblest  specimen  ;  and  knew  by 
early  experience  that  there  was  nothing  too  abstruse  or  sub 
lime  for  the  one  to  grasp,  or  too  magnanimous,  exalted,  or 


366  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

ennobling  for  the  other  to  embrace.  Believing  them  to  be 
capable  of  the  highest  intellectual  enjoyment,  and  eminently 
skilled  in  intellectual  taste,  he  conversed  with  them  as 
equals  ;  and  his  conversation  was  on  that  account  peculiarly 
attractive  and  instructive.  He  often  expressed  the  opinion, 
that  no  great  man  ever  lived,  who  had  not  a  highly  intel 
lectual  and  clear-headed  mother.  Of  one  of  the  ladies  of 
his  acquaintance  now  living  (with  whom  he  corresponded 
when  abroad),  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  that  her  letters 
gave  him  more  real  pleasure  and  delight,  than  those  received 
from  any  other  source.  The  letters  which  passed  between 
them  were  for  a  long  time  in  the  possession  of  my  own  fa 
mily  ;  and  were  a  truly  brilliant  passage  of  arms,  in  which 
grace  and  beauty  triumphed  on  either  side.  They  were, 
however,  lost,  to  the  regret  of  the  author  of  this  memoir. 

He  was  singularly  free  from  the  spirit  of  detraction. 
Tender  of  the  feelings  and  motives  of  others,  he  seldom,  if 
ever,  permitted  any  thing  of  the  sort  to  pass  by  without  re 
buke.  In  the  company  of  the  young,  especially,  who  are  too 
liable  to  be  betrayed  into  sarcastic  and  ill-natured  com 
ment  upon  the  conduct  of  others,  he  was  ever  ready  to 
pour  oil  on  the  troubled  waters,  and  vindicate  the  aspersed, 
or  at  all  events  silence  and  confound  the  asperser. 

He  possessed  very  high  veneration  for  consistent  and 
humble  piety.  Well  versed  in  the  best  old  Church  of  England 
theology,  and  accustomed  to  hold  frequent  and  delighted 
converse  with  Hooker,  Taylor,  et  id  omne  genus,  he  was  pe 
culiarly  clear  in  his  views  of  its  true  character.  On  one  oc 
casion,  illustrative  of  this  high  veneration  for  all  that  was 
pure  and  holy,  and  this  aversion  to  disparaging  comment, 
when  seated  at  a  festive  board  in  the  city  of  Annapolis,  a 
young  member  <5£  the  bar  chanced  to  mention  the  insanity  of 
a  lady  of  distinction,  and  as  a  proof  conclusive  of  the  fact, 
stated  that  she  was  running  into  all  the  lanes  and  alleys  of 
Baltimore,  and  ferreting  out  objects  of  charity  from  among 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  367 

their  filthy  and  wretched  inmates.  Mr.  Pinkney  turned 
and  said,  with  one  of  his  sweetest  smiles,  and  in  a  tone  of 
most  melting  pathos,  "  what  a  beautiful  combination  of  mo 
ral  virtues  to  constitute  mental  derangement,  piety  towards 
God,  and  benevolence  towards  man."  The  only  criticism, 
said  a  lady  to  me,  who  often  went  with  him  to  public  wor 
ship,  I  ever  remember  to  have  heard  him  make  was,  "  praise 
that  sermon  if  you  dare." 

He  was  a  stanch  friend  ;  although  in  the  selection  of  a 
friend,  he  followed  the  rule  so  beautifully  and  forcibly  laid 
down  by  Shakspeare  : 

"  The  friends  thou  hast  and  their  adoption  tried, 
Grapple  them  to  thy  soul  with  hooks  of  steel, 
But  do  not  dull  thy  palm  with  entertainment 
Of  each  new  hatched  unfledged  comrade." 

HAMLET. 


His  sensibilities  were  singularly  warm  for  a  man  of  re 
serve.  His  heart  beat  responsive  to  the  touch  of  kindness. 
His  zeal  in  the  service  of  those  he  loved  knew  no  bounds. 
His  eloquence  and  legal  learning  were  not  unfrequently 
poured  forth  in  pleading  their  cause  and  defending  their 
rights  and  honor;  and  the  offering  was  made  altogether 
without  the  hope  or  the  acceptance  of  reward/  A  gentleman, 
not  now  living,  who  lost  a  suit  in  chancery  which  involved 
his  all,  as  he  supposed,  because  of  some  incidental  expression 
of  Mr.  Pinkney,  went  to  him  ;  and  he  told  me  that  he  en 
tered  immediately  with  all  his  heart  and  soul  into  the  in 
vestigation,  and  never  rested  until  he  had  reversed  the  deci 
sion  of  the  court  below,  and  established  him  in  the  full  pos 
session  of  his  lost  estate,  and  would  never  hear  of  the  k»ai 
compensation.  It  was  a  friend's  claim  upon  his  sympathy 
in  a  cause  he  knew  to  be  just,  and  the  only  .remuneration  he 
could  or  would  receive,  separate  and  above  the  pleasure  of 
the  deed,  was  gratitude  for  the  service  rendered.  The  au 
dience  were  in  tears,  no  eye  was  dry,  while  a  friend's  voice 


368  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

was  uplifted  in  the  defence  of  a  friend's  rights.  There  are  wit 
nesses  to  the  truth  of  this  simple  fact,  now  alive,  whose  tes 
timony  could  be  invoked  were  it  necessary.  This  was  by  no 
means  an  uncommon  occurrence.  One  of  the  most  powerful 
and  touching  speeches  he  ever  delivered  before  a  jury  was  in 
defence  of  a  near  relative  of  a  lady  with  whom  he  boarded  ; 
and  long  will  the  echoes  of  that  memorable  effort  live  in  the 
memory  of  those  who  heard  it.  Upper  Marlborough  was  the 
place,  a  jury  of  Prince  George's  County  the  arbiters,  and  the 
tears  of  a  lone  widow  restored  to  the  embrace  of  one  she 
loved,  the  only  reward  of  the  eloquent  advocate.  This  kind 
ness  of  disposition  and  warmth  of  friendship  were  exhibited 
in  behalf  of  the  poor  and  uninfluential  more  readily,,  than 
those  whom  it  might  appear  to  be  politic  to  defend. 

One  of  the  strongest  proofs  of  the  warmth  and  genero 
sity  of  his  feelings  is  furnished  in  the  fact,  that  he  never 
forfeited  a  friendship  he  once  learned  to  honor  and  trust. 
With  Jefferson,  Madison  and  Monroe,  he  continued  on  terms 
of  the  closest  intimacy  and  confidence.  The  following  ex 
tract,  from  a  letter  written  just  before  his  final  return  to  the 
country  and  but  a  short  time  before  his  death,  will  show  in 
what  light  the  last  continued  to  regard  him  ;  and  there  were 
few  men  living,  who  had  a  better  opportunity  of  knowing 
and  understanding  Mr.  Pinkney's  character  : — 

"  I  pray  you  be  assured  that  I  view  your  forbearing  to 
name  me  for  the  court  of  England  exactly  as  you  do,  and 
that  I  rejoice  you  took  that  course.  It  would  certainly  have 
been  hazardous,  and  moreover,  I  had  no  wish  to  go  to  Eng;- 

'  '  O  t> 

land,  or  to  remain  any  longer  abroad.  The  office  of  Attor 
ney-General  would  not  have  suited  me,  as  I  have  some  time 
since  taken  measures  for  resuming  my  residence  in  Balti 
more,  where  I  hope  to  retrieve  the  losses,  which  my  missions 
could  not  fail  to  inflict  upon  me  in  a  pecuniary  sense  ;  but 
they  have  been  incurred  in  the  public  service,  and  if  Pro 
vidence  spares  and  assists  me  will  not  long  be  felt.  Your 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  369 

friendly  wishes  are  really  invaluable.     I  do  not  want  office, 
but  I  highly  prize  your  esteem. 

"  Notwithstanding  my  anxie'ty  to  get  home,,  I  shall  quit 
this  station  with  some  regret.  They  have  been  very  kind  to 
me  here.  My  place  will  doubtless  be  supplied  by  a  man 
much  more  able  and  distinguished,  and  at  the  same  time  of 
equal  discretion." 

This  letter  was  written  from  St.  Petersburg,  where  Mr. 
Pinkney  was  highly  esteemed. 

Although  not  indiscriminate  in  his  friendships,  where  his 
heart  was  given,  it  was  the  heart  in  its  fulness,  warm,  gush 
ing,  simple  and  confiding  as  a  child's.  To  both  the  friends 
and  the  scenes  of  his  early  youth,  he  turned  with  undimin- 
ished  interest  and  pleasure  in  the  close  of  his  brilliant 
career. 

He  was  an  affectionate  husband  and  father  ;  and  evinced 
the  greatest  anxiety  to  promote  the  welfare  of  his  children  in 
every  way  possible./  He  had  noble  views  on  the  subject  of 
education.  I  have  it  in  my  power  to  present  those  views  to 
the  public,  for  the  first  time,  in  a  letter  written  by  him  to 
my  father.  It  contains  the  very  breathings  of  his  soul,  and 
possesses  an  additional  value,  viz.,  that  it  was  intended 
solely  for  the  eye  of  a  brother's  sympathy,  from  whom  he 
concealed  nothing,  and  was  never  designed  for  publication. 
It  is  just  what  he  thought  on  a  subject  of  the  most  absorb 
ing  interest. 


MB.    PINKNEY   TO   HIS   BROTHER   NINIAN. 

"LoxDON,  1st  June,  1800. 

"  DEAR  NINIAN, — Your  last  letter  has  given  me  great 
hopes  of  William.  If  I  should  be  disappointed  in  regard  to 
him,  I  shall  feel  it  severely,  and  I  shall  certainly  form  my 
judgment  of  him  impartially  when  I  return.  We  are  some-  W  - 
times  disposed  to  think  too  favorably  of  our  own,  and  to 
24 


370  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

permit  our  understandings  to  be  blinded  by  our  affections, 
I  am  not  of  that  temper.  He  will  find  me  able  to  deter 
mine  accurately  of  his  progress,  without  being  biassed  by  a 
parent's  fondness,  to  imagine  excellence  where  it  does  not 
exist.  I  have  perfect  confidence,  however,  that  he  will  not 
need  this  sort  of  bias.  On  your  care  of  him  (for  which  I 
cannot  be  too  grateful),  I  have  implicit  reliance  that  you 
will  give  him  sound  principles,  both  by  your  instruction  and 
example  ;  that  you  will  incite  him  to  early  habits  of  honor 
able  thinking  and  manly  feeling ;  that  you  will  teach  him 
that  the  whole  complexion  of  his  future  life  depends  upon 
his  boyish  years  ;  that  you  will  inspire  him  with  that  just 
ambition,  which,  having  excellence  for  its  object,  is  the  best 
security  for  its  attainment ;  that  you  will  impress  upon  his 
mind  the  indispensable  necessity  of  regular  application  and 
systematic  industry  as  the  only  sure  aids  of  talent  where  it 
exists,  and  the  only  effectual  substitute  for  it  where  it  is 
wanting  ;  and  in  a  word,  that  you  will  form  him  to  know 
ledge  and  virtue,  with  skill  and  attention  equal,  if  not  su 
perior,  to  my  own,  I  have  no  doubt.  There  are,  indeed., 
some  things  in  the  education  of  a  boy  which  men  are  apt  to 
neglect,  but  which,  I  trust,  you  will  think  too  important  to 
be  slighted.  I  mean  certain  principles,  moral  arid  religious, 
which  we  allow  ourselves  to  refer  to  the  future,  in  the  hope 
that  they  will  grow  up  of  themselves  or  be  acquired  as  the 
mind  advances  to  maturity.  A  mother  teaches  them  in  in 
fancy,  and  stamps  them  upon  the  heart,  not  by  formal  lec 
tures,  but  by  reiterated  admonition  or  reproof,  as  occasions 
present  themselves.  Among  those  principles  the  detestable 
nature  of  a  falsehood  deserves  to  be  strongly  inculcated. 
This  is  a  subject  upon  which  half  mankind  are  casuists  ;  but 
I  would  not  have  my  son  among  this  class  of  moralists — with 
the  great  and  essential  truths  of  religion,  the  outline  of  the 
Christian  creed,  and  the  prominent  duties  involved  in  it,  a 
boy  cannot  be  too  soon  possessed.  I  would  have  my  son  in 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  371 

early  life  instructed,  to  avoid  the  fashionable  infidelity  of  the 
times.  I  would  have  him  reared  in  the  bosom  of  a  faith,  by 
which  no  man  was  ever  made  worse,  and  all  may  hope  to  be 
made  better  :  a  sound  and  rational  piety  (the  surest  warrant 
of  happiness  in  this  world  as  well  as  in  the  next)  is  rarely 
to  be  expected,  unless  it  be  the  result  of  instruction  com 
menced  when  the  mind  is  susceptible  of  deep  impressions, 
and  continued  till  they  are  firmly  fixed.  The  fanatic  is 
usually  a  recent  convert  to  mystical  doctrines  he  does  not 
understand ;  and  the  sceptic  in  religion  too  often  owes  the 
doubts  that  torment  him  to  the  unpardonable  negligence  of 
those  to  whose  care  his  childhood  was  confided. 

a  I  know  it -is  unnecessary  to  write  thus  to  you  ;  but  you 
will  place  what  I  have  said  to  the  account  of  my  anxiety  for 
this  boy's  welfare,  and  excuse  it. 

"  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  this  scrawl,  worth  the  writing. 
The  French  have  opened  the  campaign  on  the  Rhine  with  bril 
liant  success  ;  and  in  Italy,  the  early  prosperity  of  the  Aus- 
trians  seems  likely  to  end  in  defeat  and  ruin.  A  friend  to 
the  peace  of  the  world  knows  not  to  which  side  he  should 
give  his  wishes.  The  ambitious  views  of  the  Emperor  of 
Germany  &c.,  &c.;  are  little  better  than  those  of  republican 
France. 

"  Each  party  is  tolerably  honest  in  adversity,  and  be 
comes  the  reverse  in  the  hour  of  triumph.  Americans  should 
learn  to  be  the  partisans  of  neither.  I  beg  you  to  be  as 
sured  that  I  think  of  you  always  with  true  affection. 

«  p.S. — i^  juiyy  1800. — I  have  kept  this  letter  for  the 
purpose  of  sending  it  by  *  *  *  who  has  remained  here 
longer  than  was  expected. 

"  You  will  see  by  the  public  papers  that  my  conjecture 
as  to  the  result  of  the  campaign  in  Italy  was  correct,  al 
though  at  that  time  the  general  opinion  was  rather  the  other 
way.  The  overthrow  of  the  Austrians  is  signal  and  decisive. 
Nothing  could  be  more  absolute  and  complete.  The  Em- 


372  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

peror  will  now  be  driven  to  make  peace,  and  Bonaparte  of 
fers  it  to  him  in  the  hour  of  success  and  triumph,  and  doubt 
less  with  sincerity.  This  country  must  follow  the  example 
of  Austria." 

The  campaign  on  the  Ehine  has  hitherto  been  manifestly 
subservient  to  that  of  Italy,  but  it  seems  already  to  assume  a 
more  active  character,  and  if  peace  does  not  speedily  inter 
pose  the  Austrians  under  Kray  will  experience  a  fate  similar 
to  those  under  Melas.  Such  a  constellation  of  military 
talent  has  seldom  (if  ever)  been  seen  as  may  now  be  found 
in  the  French  armies  and  at  the  head  of  French  affairs.  It 
is  to  this  circumstance  that  have  been  principally  owing  the 
splendid  events  in  Italy  and  the  masterly  though  less  active 
operations  in  Germany.  That  Kray  and  Melas  have  been 
outgeneralled  is  universally  admitted.  The  precise  co-opera 
tion  between  the  two  French  armies,  although  so  far  apart, 
towards  the  accomplishment  of  one  object,  is  a  proof,  if  any 
was  wanting,  of  the  superior  intelligence  of  those  by  whom 
their  movements  were  planned  and  conducted. 

"  We  hear  nothing  of  our  commissioners  at  Paris.  It  is 
believed  that  they  are  going  on  well ;  but  with  what  speed 
(although  I  hear  from  Murray  now  and  then)  we  are  ignorant. 

"  You  are  likely  I  perceive  to  have  a  contest  for  Pres 
ident  and  Vice-President.  So  far  removed  as  I  am,  I  ought 
to  abstain  from  all  interference  on  the  subject ;  but  I  must 
express  an  opinion  that  Mr.  Adams's  administration  has  been, 
in  the  main,  wise  and  proper.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  judge  of  the  leading  measures  of  his  administration  they 
have  been  politic  and  just  in  substance.  That  some  of  them 
should  create  clamor  was  to  be  expected — and  this  must  be 
looked  for  let  who  will  be  President. 

"  Mr.  Adams  has  done  nothing  to  deserve  to  be  discarded. 
He  came  into  power  at  a  very  delicate  crisis,  and  the 
delicacy  of  that  crisis  was  much  increased  by  the  circumstance 
of  his  having  General  Washington  for  his  immediate  and 


LIFE  OF  "WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  373 

only  predecessor  in  office.  Slight  errors  should  be  overlooked 
in  a  man  who  means  well,  and  who  has  acted  essentially  right 
in  situations  peculiarly  arduous  and  embarrassing." 

This  letter  abounds  in  wise  and  judicious  sentiments.  It 
is  a  faithful  transcript  of  his  paternal  feelings,  and  will  secure 
for  him  the  thanks  of  all,  who  are  themselves  concerned  for 
the  proper  training  of  their  children. 

/ Olr.  Pinkney  was  too  severe  a  student  to  mingle  much  in 
general  society.  His  practice  was  too  extensive  to  admit  of 
much  recreation.  Duty  triumphed  over  the  yearnings  of  a 
social  disposition ;  and  pleasure  with  him  was  always  made 
secondary  to  duty.  But  still  at  home,  in  the  privacy  of  his 
own  hearthstone,  or  abroad,  in  the  centre  of  society,  he  was 
the  finished  gentleman,  and  contributed  all  in  his  power  to  the 
pleasure  and  entertainment  of  those  around  him.  Never,  as 
many  can  testify,  did  the  charm  of  his  eloquence  or  the 
salient  vigor  of  his  intellect  appear  more  fascinating,  than 
in  the  presence  of  a  friendship  he  loved  and  trusted. 

Cite  was  a  man  of  elegant  hospitality,  and  always  welcomed 
to  his  board  those  who  chose  to  share  in  its  conviviality.  He 
knew  not  the  love  of  money,  and  nothing  gave  him  truer  de 
light  than  to  shower  it  down  in  blessings  on  the  pathway  of 
others.  / 

His  favorite  literary  works  are  not  known.  But  that  he 
delighted  especially  in  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Addison  and 
Johnson,  is  well  known.  The  former  he  never  tired  in  read 
ing,  and  thoroughly  comprehended.  Perfectly  at  home  in  all 
the  polite  literature  of  the  mother  country,  and  extensively 
and  critically  read  in  the  poets,  he  was  admirably  qualified 
to  appreciate  that  splendid  monument  of  wise  and  judicious 
criticism,  "  The  Lives  of  the  Poets/'  and  detect  its  faults. 
The  copy  now  in  my  possession  affords  abundant  proof  of  both 
the  pleasure  and  care  with  which  he  read. 

The  Bible  he  was  accustomed  to  regard  not  only  as  the 
word  of  God,  but  as  the  very  first  of  literary  works  ;  incom- 


374  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

parably  above  and  beyond  them  all,  of  ancient  or  modern 
times.  He  studied  it  closely,  and  his  mind  teemed  with 
its  beauties.  Hooker  was  also  an  especial  favorite,  particu 
larly  his  magnificent  first  book.  He  loved  the  Church  of 
England,  and  esteemed  its  theologians  perfect  masters  of 
style  and  matter. 

He  was  fond  of  his  pencil,  and  often  sketched  for  the 
amusement  and  gratification  of  his  children — and  singular 
to  state,  his  sketches  were  executed  with  the  skill  of  a  mas 
ter,  and  only  wanted  the  aid  of  experience  to  entitle  them  to 
the  highest  rank  in  artistic  excellence.  He  was  passionately 
fond  of  nature,  and  loved  to  revel  in  its  beauties.  In  the 
very  trees  and  flowers  he  found  a  sort  of  companionship.  On 
one  occasion,  illustrative  of  this  ardent  attachment  for  ex 
ternal  nature,  he  observed  that  a  favorite  tree,  one  of  the 
monarchs  of  the  forest,  had  been  cut  down,  and  it  stirred  his 
soul  to  the  highest  degree  of  eloquent  rebuke.  He  inveighed 
against  the  deed,  and  in  his  own  expressive  language  affirmed 
"  that  the  growth  of  centuries  was  ever  venerable."  , 

His  recreation  was  walking  and  hunting.  Of  the  latter 
he  was  particularly  fond.  There  was  an  excitement  about 
it  congenial  to  his  ardent  temperament.  He  was  a  capital 
shot,  and  was  capable  of  great  endurance.  He  was  a  man  of 
heart  in  every  thing  he  undertook.  His  soul  was  in  his 
business  and  his  pleasures,  his  study  and  his  pastime.  He 
did  nothing  languidly.  Enthusiastic  and  aspiring,  he  strove 
to  excel  in  every  thing  he  attempted. 

He  was  a  man  of  the  nicest  sense  of  honor.  Truth  was 
the  grace  he  was  most  ambitious  to  exhibit  in  all  his  inter 
course  with  his  fellow  men.  A  gentleman  now  residing  in 
New- York,  whose  letter  is  before  me,  relates  the  following 
conversation  that  passed  between  Mr.  Emmet  and  himself. 
I  cannot,  said  this  celebrated  and  eloquent  lawyer,  pay  Mr. 
Pinkney  a  greater  compliment  than  by  telling  you  that  in 
all  his  arguments  before  the  Supreme  Court  he  was  never 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  375 

known  to  cite  a  single  authority  that  was  not  on  record  pre 
cisely  as  he  cited  it,  and  so  fully  was  the  court  satisfied  with 
this  fact,  that-  they  never  thought  it  necessary  to  test  the 
accuracy  of  the  citation.  It  gives  me  the  more  pleasure  to 
refer  to  this,  because  it  proves  what  Mr.  Emmet  thought  of 
his  illustrious  rival,  and  how  he  spoke  of  him  in  the  freedom 
of  conversation.  Mr.  Pinkney  was  not  a  man  of  professions, 
and  yet  to  use  his  own  language  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  "  he 
had  a  good  memory  and  a  grateful  heart."  The  reciproca 
tion  of  kindness  was  the  cordial  of  his  life.  Domestic  in  his 
tastes  and  habits,  nothing  afforded  him  more  lively  satisfac 
tion,  when  the  calls  of  business  permitted,  than  to  gather 
around  him  his  children  and  the  old  friends  whom  he  never 
changed  for  new  ones,  and  the  young  men  of  promise  in 
whose  advancement  he  took  an  intense  interest,  and  live 
over  again  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  indulge  in  a  real 
sunshine  of  heart  cheerfulness.  Even  when  he  could  not 
afford  from  press  of  business  to  contribute  his  full  share  to 
the  pleasure  of  his  friends,  he  would  pass  to  and  fro  from  his 
study  to  his  parlor  in  the  course  of  the  evening  and  endeavor 
to  make  the  best  atonement  in  his  power  for  the  stern  neces 
sity  of  his  absence.  Such  was  the  discipline  of  his  mind,  he 
could  resume  the  thread  of  his  most  abstruse  argument  in  an 
instant,  and  go  on  consolidating  the  chain,  as  though  he  had 
suffered  no  interruption.  There  was  in  one  word  a  sort  of 
pensive  cheerfulness  about  him  that  captivated  the  heart, 
and  a  warm  sympathy  where  the  friends  of  his  bosom  were 
concerned,  which  none  who  ever  shared  it  can  forget. 

It  is  said  that  Mr.  Pinkney  was  inordinately  ambitious  ; 
and  I  am  not  disposed  to  deny  that  his  ambition  may  have 
exceeded  the  limits  that  are  wisely  and  in  mercy  prescribed 
to  the  aspirations  of  men.  But  there  was  nothing  low  or  sordid 
in  his  thirst  after  distinction.  If  he  were  ambitious,  it  was  not 
to  appear  to  be  what  he  was  not,  but  to  be  what  he  felt  he 
should  become.  He  was  ambitious  to  be  truly  learned  and 


376  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

truly  great.  He  selected  the  profession  of  the  law,  and  al 
ways  continued  to  pursue  it  with  delight,  because  it  was  not 
possible  to  acquire  in  it  a  spurious  and  undeserved  reputation. 
If  he  sought  to  occupy  the  rank  of  the  first  of  orators,  or 
the  greatest  of  lawyers,  it  was  by  giving  expression  to  such 
sentiments  as  could  alone  proceed  from  the  lips  of  that  rarest 
and  most  brilliant  creation  of  God,  and  exhibiting  those  un 
questionable  fruits  of  ripe  and  profound  legal  learning,  that 
could  alone  proceed  from  the  other.  He  knew  that  the  path 
of  solid  distinction  was  only  open  to  the  patient  and  laborious 
student,  and  in  striving  to  make  the  most  rapid  and  advanced 
progress  in  it,  he  was  contented  to  toil  on,  amid  drudging 
labor  to  the  end,  in  his  endeavor  and  determination  to  win 
the  unfading  laurel.  He  never  resorted  to  low  and  vulgar 
artifice  to  gain  a  fraudulent  reputation.  He  built  upon  no 
other  man's  foundation  the  superstructure  of  his  vast  renown. 
He  rose  on  no  other  man's  ruin.  In  fair  and  open  contest, 
by  dint  of  persevering  and  indefatigable  and  intense  exer 
tion,  he  fought  for  victory  ;  and  it  may  be  truly  said  of  him 
that  he  wore  not  a  garland  he  did  not  fairly  win.  Self- 
culture  in  the  exercise  of  a  self-discipline,  rarely  if  ever 
equalled,  was  the  true  secret  of  his  success.  Conscious  of  the 
possession  of  rare  intellectual  endowments,  and  grateful  for 
the  gift,  he  labored  to  make  the  most  of  them  by  constant  and 
unremitting  diligence.  Thus  far  he  was  ambitious.  Eager 
to  excel,  but  only  by  endeavoring  to  deserve  the  pre-eminence 
he  sought.  Too  eager  to  excel  it  may  have  been  for  his  own 
happiness  and  good  ;  but  still  neither  moved  by  envy  nor  poi 
soned  by  jealousy,  in  his  efforts  to  excel.  He  recognized  in 
his  competitors  the  first  men  of  the  old  and  the  new  world, 
and  he  met  them  like  a  man,  in  the  spirit  of  a  man,  who 
felt  the  terrible  strokes  of  their  stalwart  arms,  and  acknow 
ledged  their  inimitable  power  and  dialectic  skill,  and  who 
spurned  the  resort  to  underhand  trick  as  self-degradation. 
Feeling  the  grandeur  of  the  exciting  racea  he  laid  aside  every 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  377 

thing  that  could  impede  his  progress.  Pleasure,  self-ease, 
society,  were  all  not  only  resolutely  but  cheerfully  relinquish 
ed,  to  secure  the  palm  for  which  he  struggled.  Superficial 
he  was  not  ;  self-sufficient  he  was  not.  Never  satisfied  to 
remain  where  he  was,  his  motto  was  ever  onward.  His  con 
stant  aim  was  to  be  what  he  wished  men  to  think  him  ;  and 
what  he  knew,  by  a  prudent  husbandry  of  his  resources, 
he  could  readily  make  himself  to  be.  There  was  a  sub 
limity  in  this  deathless  desire  to  improve  to  the  highest  pos 
sible  degree  the  faculties  of  a  noble  intellect,  which  com 
mands  our  admiration.  There  was  a  moral  power  in  that 
severe  discipline  of  the  mind,  for  its  own  improvement,  which 
was  never  relaxed  for  a  moment,  that  made  its  influence  felt 
by  the  very  first  minds  of  the  profession.  It  sought  no 
ephemeral  end  by  illegitimate  means.  Distinction  alone 
was  not  the  boon  it  craved.  Applause  was  not  alone  the  in 
cense  it  coveted.  Distinction  as  the  reward  of  real  attain 
ment  ;  professional  applause  as  the  fruit  of  gigantic  pro 
fessional  labor, — this  it  was  which  moved  the  soul  of  Pink- 
ney,  and  fired  his  noble  spirit.  Solid  reputation,  based  upon 
real  merit,  was  what  he  desired.  So  exceedingly  jealous  was 
he  of  the  moral  beauty  of  this  element  in  the  reputation  he 
sought,  that  his  friends  were  apprised  of  his  intention  to 
abandon  the  field  of  professional  duty,  the  very  moment  he 
was  conscious  of  any  diminution  of  zeal  in  study  or  inherent 
failure  of  his  mental  faculties.  With  less  labor  he  might 
have  lived  upon  the  reputation  he  had  acquired,  and  occa 
sionally  poured  forth  the  higher  specimens  of  his  power  ;  but 
that  would  not  have  filled  the  measure,  or  realized  the  idea 
he  had  formed  of  the  ambition  worthy  of  his  profession. 
Ambition  I  know  is  a  dangerous  thing.  It  sometimes  de 
generates  into  a  mean  and  pitiful  vice.  But  such  was  not 
the  ambition  of  William  Pinkney.  There  is  nothing  even 
in  his  most  private  correspondence,  or  the  most  unreserved 
communings  of  his  friendship,  that  savored  of  illiberality  or 


378  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

meanness.  There  was,  it  is  true,  a  reserve  in  his  profession 
al  bearing,  that  was  distasteful  to  many,  and  misinterpreted 
by  more.  Mr.  Kennedy  has  done  him  justice  in  this  respect. 
He  appeared  in  the  forum  in  the  midst  of  his  competitors 
like  a  knight  ever  equipped  for  battle,  and  he  walked  the 
field  with  knit  brow  and  cautious  step,  ready  for  a  tilt  wher 
ever  he  met  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel.  On  such  occasions 
there  was  at  times  too  much  the  semblance  of  hauteur 
imparted  to  his  air  and  mien.  But  still  he  was  not  wanting 
in  courtesy.  He  always  engaged  his  adversary  in  fair  fight 
and  with  honorable  weapons.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Judge  Story  said  of  him  (page  252,  vol.  i.),  "that  he  was 
fair  in  not  urging  points  on  which  he  did  not  rely  with  con 
fidence,  and  acute  in  seizing  the  proper  point  of  attack,  and 
driving  the  enemy  from  it  by  storm."  This  is  the  deliber 
ate  and  honest  asseveration  of  one  who  knew  him  well.  It 
was  a  grapple  of  mind  with  mind,  learning  with  learning, 
eloquence  with  eloquence. 

His  ambition  did  not  blind  him  to  the  real  merit  of  oth 
ers,  neither  did  it  excite  envy  in  his  bosom.  He  admired  the 
talents  of  a  Hamilton,  Madison,  Dexter,  Dallas,  Jones,  Em 
met,  Story,  Marshall,  Webster,  Clay  and  others  ;  and  to  the 
worth  of  most,  if  not  all  of  them,  there  are  interspersed 
either  in  his  letters  or  his  speeches,  most  explicit  and  noble 
tributes  of  praise.  They  were,  most  of  them,  his  competi 
tors,  and  he  disputed  with  them,  inch  by  inch,  the  palm  of 
ascendency  ;  and  he  disputed  to  the  last  with  the  keen 
eye  and  practised  skill  of  the  most  consummate  gladiator. 
But  although  he  was  accustomed  to  press  his  advantages  with 
vast  dexterity,  he  was  not  blind  to  their  exalted  mental  and 
moral  worth.  I  very  much  question  whether  any  man  ever 
paid  more  frequent  and  spontaneous  tribute  to  the  genius  or 
acquirements  of  his  competitors  than  he.  One  thing  is  cer 
tain  ;  his  private  correspondence  is  defiled  by  as  little  acri 
mony  or  bitterness  of  criticism  upon  his  contemporaries,  or 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  379 

disgusting  egotism,  as  any.  In  his  more  familiar  converse 
he  spoke  freely  of  measures  and  of  works  ;  sparingly  of  men 
and  of  motives.  He  was  perhaps  as  little  personal  in  his  many 
earnest  struggles  of  the  forum  and  the  Senate  chamber,  as 
the  least  offensive  and  most  guarded  of  his  competitors. 

To  the  younger  members  of  the  bar  he  was,  at  all  times, 
the  kind,  considerate  and  sympathizing  friend,  the  delighted 
and  interested  eulogizer  of  their  endeavors  to  ascend  the  rug 
ged  hill  of  fame,  "  to  drink  the  nectar  and  breathe  the  ambro 
sial  perfume."  He  loved  to  encourage  them  in  their  first 
struggles  to  be  great,  and  sought  to  stimulate  their  ambi 
tion,  and  elevate  their  professional  self-respect  by  judicious 
praise  and  well  directed  criticism. 

I  do  not  question  that  Mr.  Pinkney  had  his  faults  and 
weaknesses  like  other  men.  But,  with  Story,  I  aver  they 
were  trivial,  when  compared  with  his  virtues — "lighter 
than  the  linnet's  wing/'  To  use  the  language  of  Vir 
ginia's  noble  orator,  Kandolph  of  Eoanoke:  "He  had  in 
deed  his  faults,  his  foibles  ;  I  should  rather  say  sins.  Who 
is  without  them  ?  Let  such,  such  only,  cast  the  first  stone. 
And  these  foibles,  if  you  will,  which  every  body  could  see, 
because  every  body  is  clear-sighted  with  regard  to  the  faults 
and  foibles  of  others,  he  I  have  no  doubt  would  have  been 
the  first  to  acknowledge  on  a  proper  representation  of  them." 
These  are  noble  words,  uttered  in  the  same  breath  that  told 
the  world  that  the  last  act  of  intercourse  between  them  was 
an  act  the  recollection  of  which  he  would  not  be  without  for 
all  the  offices  that  all  the  men  in  the  United  States  have 
filled  or  ever  shall  fill.  What  that  act  was,  was  only  known 
to  him  who  witnessed  it  ;  but  where  the  recollection  is  so 
sweet  and  fragrant,  the  knowledge  is  a  thing  of  naught.  I 
am  not  conscious  that  I  have  colored  too  highly  a  single  trait  ; 
and  full  well  I  know,  I  have  not  so  combined  or  developed 
them  as  they  were  combined  and  developed  in  the  daily 
walk. 

Justum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum. 


380  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 


MARSHALL,   STORY,  WEBSTER,    CLAY,    CAL- 
HOUN,  PINKNEY. 

Marshall,  Story,  Pinkney,  and  Webster,  four  of  the 
greatest  names  in  American  jurisprudence.  All  now  gone 
to  their  rest.  The  first  two  may  be  said  without  a  figure  to 
linger  still  in  the  highest  forum  of  this  nation,  and  give 
forth  law  to  the  country  and  the  world.  The  forms  of  Mar 
shall  and  of  Story  (alike  calm  and  dignified,  and  yet  all  un 
like  in  the  living  lineaments  of  manly  beauty),  the  befitting 
sanctuaries  of  minds  free  from  prejudice,  and  well  nigh  intu 
itive  in  judgment,  have  not  yet  faded  from  the  memory  of 
the  living.  The  form  of  the  third  is  not  yet  a  stranger  to 
the  hall,  that  has  oft  resounded  with  his  trumpet  tones. 
Marshall  and  Story  dictated  law  to  the  nation.  They  ex 
pounded  the  constitution  of  the  freest  and  noblest  Republic 
known  to  the  page  of  history.  The  world  has  learned  to  ven 
erate  their  judgments.  They  were  lumina  justitice  in  foro 
justitice.  All  men  loved  to  do  them  reverence.  No  man 
can  wish,  for  the  judicatures  of  the  land,  a  more  exalted  des 
tiny  or  a  fuller  measure  of  glory,  than  the  permission  to 
wear  their  mantle  and  emulate  their  greatness,  by  imbibing 
their  lofty  principles.  Pinkney  took,  in  his  hands,  the  same 
inimitable  constitution.  Fresh  from  the  society  of  its  most 
revered  authors,  and  animated  by  its  stupendous  principles, 
he  unfolded  it  to  the  view  of  the  American  people,  and  as 
sisted  in  the  establishment  of  those  great  principles  of  con 
struction,  which  are  at  once  the  ornament  and  the  strength 
of  that  more  than  Egyptian  pyramid,  reared  by  the  hands  of 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  381 

a  Marshall  and  a  Story,  to  the  lasting  honor  of  American 
jurisprudence.  Webster  lived  to  prove  that  the  highest  in 
tellectual  endowments  and  the  profoundest  legal  learning 
perished  not  with  them.  He  wore  the  mantle  of  his  three 
great  predecessors  (for  a  time  his  cotemporaries  on  earth), 
with  not  less  grace  than  dignity.  He  enjoyed  the  enviable 
title  of  defender  and  expounder  of  the  constitution.  It  is 
not  transcending  truth  to  say  of  him,  that  that  precious  in 
strument  has  been  made  more  illustrious  by  the  surpassing 
brilliancy  and  depth  of  his  giant  intellect,  and  that  ages  yet 
to  come  will  hold  it  in  still  higher  reverence  as  they  view  it 
in  the  gorgeous  light  of  his  masterly  commentary.  There 
was  a  rare  combination  in  the  character  of  Pinkney  and 
Webster  ;  solid  as  the  granite,  profound  as  the  ocean,  bril 
liant  as  the  diamond,  they  were,  it  seems  to  me,  the  purest 
specimens  of  all  that  was  great  in  oratory  and  masterful  in 
reasoning.  And  now  that  the  shades  of  Marshall  and  Story 
live  but  in  name,  and  the  echoes  of  Pinkney' s  eloquence  and 
profound  legal  learning  are  heard  amid  the  hills  of  his  own 
beautiful  Potomac,  and  Webster,  too,  is  dead,  and  Marsh- 
field  is  desolate  ;  we  may  say,  with  proud  exultation,  in 
Webster's  own  words,  "  the  past,  at  least,  is  secure,"  and 
Columbia  shall  be  remembered  as  the  abode  of  eloquence 
and  the  home  of  genius.  In  naming  Mr.  Pinkney  and  Mr. 
Webster  together,  and  weaving  a  like  brilliant  and  imperish 
able  garland  for  each,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  I  mean 
to  intimate  that  they  were  wholly  alike  in  the  quality  and 
character  of  their  minds.  They  resembled  each  other  in 
that  feature  which  made  them  so  unlike  any  other  of  their 
illustrious  compeers.  They  were  alike  in  the  wonderful 
combination  of  depth  and  brilliancy.  But  in  most  other 
respects  they  differed  from  each  other  as  widely  as  they  did 
from  the  more  distinguished  of  their  competitors.''  Clay  was 
far  reaching,  endowed  with  extraordinary  sagacity,  full  of 
sterling  common  sense,  bold  as  a  lion,  the  most  perfect  mas- 


382  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

ter  of  the  power  to  move  and  mould  the  masses,  empha 
tically  and  par  excellence  the  orator  of  the  people.  He  was 
the  first  statesman  of  the  world.  Almost  intuitive  in  judg 
ment,  he  was  equal  to  any  emergency,  and  could  steer  the 
noble  ship  of  state  through  the  most  difficult  and  appalling 
crisis.  His  courage  always  rose  with  the  occasion,  and  his 
admirable  decision  of  character  gave  a  sort  of  charm  to 
the  policy  he  pursued,  and  was  the  chief  element  of  his  suc 
cess.  His  tall  and  majestic  figure  beautifully  harmonized 
with  his  frankness  of  disposition  ;  while  his  voice,  which  was 
the  very  melody  of  eloquence,  capable  of  the  most  marvel 
lous  modulation,  pre-eminently  fitted  him  for  a  leader  in 
the  fervor  and  excitement  ot  debate.  The  great  pacificator 
of  the  country,  he  more  than  once  calmed  the  spirit  of  the 
storm,  as  it  rose  in  its  fury,  and  threatened  to  pour  desola 
tion  in  its  whirlwind  path  ;  so  that  without  the  charge  of 
extravagance,  we  may  apply  to  him  those  beautiful  words  of 
the  poet  : 

•'•'  Tumida  asquora  placat 
Collectasque  fugat  nubes,  solemque  reducit." 

He  led  on  in  the  Missouri  compromise,  and  Pinkney  fol 
lowed.  He  led  on  in  the  last,  not  less  glorious,  compromise, 
and  Webster  followed.  The  glory  of  the  invention  and 
guiding  policy  was  in  either  case  Clay's  ;  the  noblest  defence 
was  Pinkney's  and  Webster's.  The  chivalrous  and  heroic 
Clay  will  be  remembered  as  long  as  the  Union  lasts,  and  the 
marvel  of  his  eloquence,  identified  with  the  floating  stars, 
will  recall  the  splendors  of  the  elder  Pitt,  and  make  immor 
tal  the  principles  of  freedom  it  so  brilliantly  illustrated. 
His  name  is  still  the  watchword  which  is  recognized  by 
every  sentinel  on  guard,  as  the  countersign  ;  and  his  memory 
is  still,  as  it  ever  will  be,  a  tower  of  strength. 

The  genius  of  Calhoun  (which  delighted  to  revel  in  the 
midst  of  its  own  splendid  theories,  remarkably  rich  and 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNER.  383 

fruitful),  united  to  his  singularly  strong  and  vigorous  intel 
lect,  will  command  the  admiration  of  the  world,  so  long  as 
originality  and  force  are  properly  appreciated.  But  Clay, 
with  all  his  incomparable  excellence  as  a  popular  orator  and 
statesman,  was  defective  in  profound  logical  power  ;  and  Cal- 
houn,  with  all  his  unquestioned  intellectuality,  was  defective 
in  judgment  and  splendor  of  eloquence.  Their  eminence 
was  restricted  to  the  two  great  departments  of  oratory  and 
statesmanship. 

*Mr.  Pinkney  and  Mr.  Webster  were  left  to  illustrate  that 
rare  combination,  which  secured  for  them  like  pre-eminence 
as  lawyers,  orators,  and  statesmen.  For  close,  severe,  con 
nected,  logical  reasoning,  they  were  unsurpassed.  Perfect 
masters  of  the  science  of  the  law ;  inimitable  expounders  of 
the  constitution,  they  were  as  profound  as  brilliant,  as  deep 
as  eloquent.  They  were  tried  in  the  severest  school  and  in 
the  presence  of  the  most  critical  and  competent  judges.  The 
very  first  court  of  the  nation,  in  the  very  zenith  of  its  fame, 
was  not  ashamed  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  either,  and  learn  the 
true  principles  of  constitutional  interpretation.  They  were, 
indeed,  amici  curiee.  But  still  they  were  very  unlike  each 
other,  notwithstanding  this  wonderful  resemblance.  Pink 
ney  was  rapid.  He  poured  forth  torrents  of  forensic  elo 
quence  and  vehement  argumentation  in  a  swollen  stream, 
that  seemed  to  be  absolutely  exhaustless.  Engaged  in  the 
most  diversified  and  extensive  practice,  he  never  failed  to  in 
fuse  the  magic  of  his  eloquence  and  transparency  of  his  rea 
soning  into  his  numberless  arguments.  Mr.  Webster  could 
be  eloquent ;  at  times  most  eloquent  ;  and  on  such  occasions 
the  effect  was  irresistible.  He  was  calm,  collected,  delibe 
rate  in  the  main  ;  and  yet  his  great  soul  was  sometimes 
roused,  and  his  lion  spirit  stirred,  and  then  there  was  the 
lightning  flash  in  his  eye,  and  the  thunder  tone  on  his 
tongue.  At  such  times,  there  was  an  a\vful  sublimity  in  his 
thoughts,  and  a  bold,  massive  structure  in  his  style,  that 


384  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM  PINKNEY. 

were  admirably  adapted  to  the  occasion.  He  bore  down, 
like  a  roused  lion,  upon  his  antagonist,  and  desperate  and 
well-timed  were  the  blows  of  his  stalwart  arm.  He  was 
master  of  every  passion,  and  his  countenance  glowed  with 
the  most  varying  expression.  I  was  privileged  to  witness 
one  of  those  noblest  bursts  of  oratorical  power  in  the  cele 
brated  Gerard  Will  case.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  wither 
ing  scorn,  the  biting  sarcasm,  the  deep  affecting  pathos  and 
fearful  sublimity,  that  alternately  thrilled  and  delighted  the 
wrapt  assembly. 

Mr.  Pinkney  was  not  less  self-collected.  But  fired  by  the 
brilliancy  of  his  genius,  and  transported  by  the  sublimity  of 
his  thoughts,  his  warm  southern  temperament  was  more 
quickly  and  keenly  roused,  and  he  always  rose  in  grandeur 
before  the  court,  and  was  not  confessedly  excelled  by  any. 
He  saw  his  conclusion  with  an  eagle  eye,  hurried  on  with 
giant  strides  to  reach  it,  and  failed-  not  of  his  mark.  He 
forced  you  along  "  pari  passu"  in  breathless  wonder,  in  a 
very  whirl,  not  of  declamation,  but  of  overpowering  and 
matchless  argumentation.  And  yet,  in  the  highest  excite 
ment  of  his  fervor  and  rushing  impetuosity,  he  was  ever  per 
fect  master  of  himself. 

Webster  required  some  powerful  stimulus  to  draw  out  his 
giant  faculties.  Pinkney  never  was  without  such  stimulus. 
It  was  as  natural  for  him  to  be  eloquent  as  to  speak. 
Pinkney7  s,  was  the  outgushing  of  thought  and  expression 
from  an  overflowing  fountain  ;  Webster's,  the  welling  up 
of  thought  and  expression,  not  less  rich,  but  less  copious 
and  free  in  its  flow.  They  were  more  Demosthenic  than  Ci 
ceronian  in  their  style  of  eloquence,  and  yet  modelled  upon 
neither.  Vigor  and  perspicuity  were  the  chief  characteris 
tics.  Admirable  scholars,  they  were  singularly  happy  in  the 
choice  and  arrangement  of  their  words  ;  not  less  admirable 
logicians,  they  were  equally  happy  in  the  classification  and 
disposition  of  their  ideas.  Webster  never  had  occasion 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PINKNEY.  385 

to  recall  a  word  or  re-arrange  a  sentence  ;  but  then  he  was, 
even  in  his  most  excited  mood,  what  would  be  termed  a  slow 
speaker.  Pinkney  was  not  less  skilful  in  the  structure  of  his 
sentences  and  the  choice  of  his  words.  He  was  never  known 
to  be  at  fault  for  either.  This  was  the  more  wonderful,  be 
cause,  in  the  greatest  rapidity  of  utterance,  there  was  never 
a  pause  for  either  language  or  ideas.  Neither  of  them,  was 
ever  excelled  in  the  ability  to  explore  all  the  depths  of  a 
subject ;  and  though  differing  widely  in  their  peculiar  powers 
of  imagination,  neither  of  them  was  ever  excelled  in  the 
beauty  and  magnificence  of  coloring  they  could  impart  to 
the  deductions  and  processes  of  reasoning.  Mr.  Webster 
sometimes  drew  a  vast  crowd  to  the  courts  of  justice,  and  at 
times  riveted  the  attention  of  the  audience.  Mr.  Pinkney 
never  spoke  without  drawing  a  crowd,  and  wielding  a  tre 
mendous  influence  over  the  promiscuous  assemblage  ;  and 
this  he  did  with  such  consummate  skill,  that  he  never  weak 
ened  his  argument  or  made  it  nerveless.  Men  are  as  fond 
of  eloquence  now  as  they  were  then;  and  yet,  taking  the 
whole  professional  life  together,  it  may  be  truly  affirmed  that 
no  man  ever  drew  together  such  crowds  with  like  power  to 
keep  them  spell-bound,  without  the  weakening  of  a  single 
link  in  the  chain  of  severe  logical  discussion.  It  was,  in 
deed,  a  rare  and  wonderful  gift." 

It  is  to  be  deeply  regretted  that  these  two  great  men,  so 
much  alike  in  towering  strength,  transparency  of  reasoning, 
copiousness  and  concentration  of  thought  and  wealth  of 
imagination,  were  never  brought  into  direct  antagonism. 
They  were  engaged  in  the  great  Bank  cause  ;  and  there,  ac 
cording  to  Story's  estimate,  Pinkney  was  the  bright  peculiar 
star.  But  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  they  were  never 
engaged  as  opposite  counsel  in  any  cause.  It  is  a  well 
known  fact,  that  Mr.  Pinkney' s  highest  powers  were  always 
more  signally  displayed  in  such  antagonism.  It  was  then, 
that  his  ingenuity  in  the  conduct  of  a  cause,  his  quickness 
25 


386  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

of  perception,  his  accuracy  of  law  knowledge,  his  powers  of 
scathing  analysis,  his  almost  intuitive  perception  of  the  weak 
points,  and  ardent  spirit  (that,  like  Napoleon's,  would  scarce 
admit  the  possibility  of  defeat)  shone  out  in  all  their  strength. 

When  it  is  said  that  Webster  stated,  that  he  had  met 
Pinkney,  Emmet  and  Wirt,  but  never  feared  either  of  them 
as  much  as  he  did  Jeremiah  Mason,  it  should  not  be  forgot 
ten  that  he  had  never  encountered  Pinkney.  He  had  argued 
by  his  side  ;  never  in  opposition  to  him.  It  would  have 
been  a  glorious  contest,  and  I  regret  that  their  mutual  friends 
were  not  permitted  to  witness  it,  knowing  that  it  would  have 
been  conducted  in  a  way  to  reflect  honor  upon  both. 

If,  as  I  have  shown,  they  were  alike  in  combination  of 
talent  (however  much  they  differed  in  their  idiosyncrasies  of 
intellect),  they  were  not  unlike  in  the  destiny  that  befel 
them.  Neither  of  them  was  ever  vanquished.  They  never 
suffered  a  Waterloo  defeat,  although  they  passed  the  bridge 
of  Lodi,  and  scaled  the  passage  of  the  Alps. 

Mr.  Pinkney  could  never  be  followed  by  a  reporter.  He 
soon  gave  up  the  task  in  despair,  in  the  fascinating  spell  of 
the  orator.  And  from  the  constant  multiplicity  of  his  ef 
forts,  another  consequent  necessity  for  extraordinary  ex 
ertion,  unassisted  by  reporters,  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  revise  and  prepare  for  publication  any  of  his 
speeches.  Thoughts  struck  out  in  the  excitement  of  debate, 
and  beauties  of  expression  and  flashes  of  eloquence  emitted 
by  the  mind,  when  roused  by  the  fervor  of  discussion,  can 
never  be  recalled  ;  and  consequently,  if  the  reporter  from 
any  cause  prove  unequal  to  the  task,  the  speech  is  lost.  It 
was  Mr.  Pinkney's  misfortune  to  live  and  die,  without  meet 
ing  the  man,  who  could  write  down  those  splendid  passages, 
or  even  preserve  unbroken  the  chain  of  his  argument ;  and 
it  is  the  misfortune  of  the  lovers  of  true  eloquence,  that 
such  was  the  melancholy  fact.  Mr.  Webster  in  this  respect 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  387 

has  the  advantage  over  all  others.     He  has  left  a  monument 
behind  him  worthy  of  his  vast  fame. 

Not  too  rapid  to  be  followed,  in  the  present  improved 
state  of  stenography,  his  speeches  were  happily  preserved  ; 
and  that  without  any  great  labor  on  his  part.  In  his  speech 
on  Foote's  resolution,  he  had  the  advantage  of  a  report  from 
the  pen  of  the  senior  editor  of  the  Intelligencer,  who  is  se 
cond  to  none  of  his  cotemporaries  in  the  best  qualities  of  a 
statesman.  It  is  not,  therefore,  possible  to  conceive  of  a 
richer  mine  of  all  that  is  grand  in  eloquence,  stupendous  in 
genius,  and  conclusive  in  argument,  than  the  speeches  of 
Daniel  Webster  afford,  caught  up  as  they  fell  from  his  lips, 
with  the  glow  fresh  upon  them,  and  reviewed  by  himself  in 
the  sunset  of  his  splendid  career,  when  not  a  faculty  was 
dimmed,  nor  a  ray  obscured. 

No  man  can  accord  to  the  lamented  Webster  a  pre-emi 
nence  I  do  not  accord  to  him.  No  man  can  take  a  prouder 
pleasure  in  contemplating  the  rising  columns  of  his  fame, 
which,  "  piercing  the  skies,  is  gilded  by  the  first  and  latest 
rays  of  the  sun"  in  his  circuit  of  glory. 

I  have  thus  ventured  to  give  to  the  public  my  estimate 
of  the  character  of  these  two  remarkable  men,  Webster  and 
Pinkney.  I  waved  the  expression  of  my  opinion  until  the 
facts  that  illustrated  the  latter  were  spread  out  before  it. 
That  estimate  must  pass  for  what  it  is  worth.  For  a  rare  com 
bination  of  all  the  elements  of  true  greatness,  they  were,  in  my 
opinion,  proudly  pre-eminent.  For  massive  grandeur  of  intel- 
tellect  and  granite  strength,  solidity  of  judgment  and  sub 
lime  eloquence,  they  were  principes  inter  pares.  Pinkney 
was  Webster's  equal  in  depth  and  brilliancy  ;  more  varied 
in  his  gifts  and  uniformly  great  in  the  use  of  them.  His 
oratory  was  more  splendid  and  overpowering  if  viewed  in 
the  aggregate  ;  fully  its  equal,  viewed  in  any  other  light. 
They  were,  however,  kindred  orbs,  stars  of  the  first  magni 
tude.  In  all  that  is  worthy  of  lasting  renown,  in  devotion 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

tu  the  Union,  power  of  argument,  conservative  statesman 
ship  and  majesty  of  eloquence,  their  names  will  be  handed 
down  to  coming  generations — the  first  of  lawyers,  orators 
and  statesmen.  Equalled,  it  may  be,  by  some,  in  one  or 
other  of  those  departments  ;  they  were  unequalled  in  the 
exquisite  union  of  pre-eminent  excellence  in  all.  I  award 
to  them  like  honor  and  distinction,  satisfied  that  our  coun 
try  will  never  want  a  title  to  the  name  of  eloquence  and 
force  of  intellect,  so  long  as  either  name  shall  survive  to  be 
remembered. 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  389 


CONCLUSION. 

HAVING  caught  up  the  true  echoes  of  Mr.  Pinkney's  fame, 
I  may  be  permitted  in  conclusion  to  address  a  few  words  to 
the  young  men  of  the  United  States  ;  and  enforce  the  sub 
lime  moral,  which  they  so  impressively  inculcate.  I  had  a 
higher  object  in  undertaking  this  work  than  the  mere  desire 
of  paying  a  merited  tribute  to  the  subject  of  this  memoir. 
For  although  the  part  enacted  by  Mr.  Pinkney  in  the  past 
history  of  the  country,  and  his  brilliant  achievements  in  Par 
liamentary  and  forensic  eloquence  are  worthy  of  perpetua 
tion  ;  although  his  name  and  character  are  a  portion  of  our 
common  heritage  of  glory,  and  therefore  justly  entitle  him  to 
be  held  in  grateful  remembrance — it  strikes  me  that  the 
powerful  influence,  which  such  an  example  ought  to  exert 
upon  the  enterprising  youth  of  the  present  day,  constitutes 
the  most  important  and  attractive  aim  of  the  biography. 
Example  is  ever  more  potent  for  good  than  precept.  The 
present  receives  its  wisest  lessons  and  most  exciting  stimulus 
from  the  past,  and  the  future  will,  for  the  most  part,  take 
its  hue  from  the  past  and  the  present  combined.  Youth  has 
always  been  nerved  to  patriotism  and  excited  to  eloquence 
by  the  great  and  the  virtuous,  whose  footprints  are  left  on 
the  paths  they  tread.  It  will  be  so,  so  long  as  the  human 
soul  retains  its  love  of  virtue  and  admiration  of  distin 
guished  talent.  The  tombs  of  the  departed  great,  the 
mausoleums  of  the  illustrious  dead,  are  the  best  schools  for 
tHe  mental  and  moral  training  of  those  who  follow  them. 
Oblivion  may  have  its  sweets,  and  forgetfulness  its  charms 


390  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNET. 

and  usefulness,  but  not  where  the  fragrance  of  noble  prin 
ciples  is  scenting  the  air,  and  the  fruits  of  gigantic  exertion 
are  clustering  on  the  boughs.  He,  who  strives  to  deserve 
well  of  his  country  and  of  mankind,  and  consecrates  his  rich 
and  varied  powers  to  the  service  of  his  fellows,  is  a  beacon 
light,  set  up  by  Divine  Providence  for  the  encouragement 
and  imitation  of  succeeding  ages.  It  is  not  possible  to 
multiply  too  much  the  exemplars,  who  have  illustrated  the 
page  of  history  and  made  it  glorious.  Each  additional  star 
swells  the  brilliancy  of  the  constellation,  and  the  eye  never 
tires  in  gazing  upon  its  beauty,  for  to  each  there  is  its  own 
peculiar  fascination.  There  is  no  antagonism  in  those  cu 
mulating  rays.  It  is  one  harmonious  blended  light,  that 
gathers  intensity  and  strength  from  the  burning  splendors  of 
the  whole. 

Our  young  countrymen  have  an  awful  trust  committed 
to  their  charge,  a  magnificent  present,  and  a  future  such  as 
never  before  dawned  upon  the  world.  The  blessings  they 
enjoy  are  not  the  birth  and  growth  of  a  single  day.  They 
see  the  gorgeous  blossom  of  the  flower  that  was  but  yester 
day  in  the  bud  ;  the  mighty  development  of  the  seed  that 
was  but  just  now  in  the  germ.  The  United  States  of 
America  are  a  new  star  in  the  political  firmament — a 
federative  government  not  known  to  any  other  confederation 
of  the  old  or  the  new  world — without  a  parallel  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  past.  A  distinguished  writer  of  England,  in  a 
disquisition  concerning  the  power  and  stability  of  federative 
governments,  of  singular  force  and  discrimination,  asserts 
that  ours  "  is  a  new  creation  in  politics  ;  that  our  union  has 
avoided  the  glaring  errors  of  former  confederacies — that  our 
forefathers  studied  the  models  of  antiquity  in  the  true  spirit 
of  political  wisdom.  With  a  view  to  balance  the  powers  of 
the  central  and  state  governments,  and  to  prevent  the  former 
from  overstepping  its  proper  limits,  a  power  has 'been  there 
conceded  to  the  judiciary,  which  has  in  no  other  instance 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  391 

been  vested  in  that  department."  These  United  States 
then,  the  invention  and  discovery  of  the  patriots  of  '87,  men 
of  the  lion  heart  and  patriot  will,  the  cool  sagacity  to  discern 
what  was  best  and  the  enlargement  of  soul  to  adopt  what 
they  discerned,  is  the  country  of  your  hopes  and  allegiance. 
Its  principles,  institutions,  resources,  power  and  future  des 
tiny,  have  been  long  the  topic  of  eloquent  discussion.  It  is 
history  known  by  heart  to  each  one  of  you.  In  territory,  for 
extent,  richness  and  variety  of  soil ;  in  beauty  of  scenery, 
and  mineral  resources,  and  every  other  quality  that  could 
fit  it  to  be  the  fairest  heritage  that  ever  fell  to  the  lot 
of  any  people,  whose  bosoms  beat  high  with  love  of  liberty, 
social,  civil,  and  religious — it  is  unsurpassed.  Mountain 
and  vale,  woodland  and  prairie,  bay,  river,  and  lake,  con 
stitute  it  the  consecrated  land  of  liberty.  Possessed  of  every 
variety  of  climate,  from  the  ice-bound  shores  of  the  Atlantic 
to  the  warm  and  genial  breezes  of  the  tropics,  it  is  adapted 
to  the  growth  of  every  luxury  that  the  palate  can  crave,  and 
suited  to  the  wants  and  tastes  of  the  millions  who  have 
sought  upon  it  a  shelter  and  a  home.  Dotted  over  by  the 
footsteps  of  the  arts  and  sciences  with  beauty  and  comfort ; 
covered  with  railroads,  which  promise  in  a  few  brief  years  to 
form  a  complete  iron  web  for  the  diffusion  of  commerce  and 
the  propagation  of  light  and  liberty  from  the  centre  to  the 
circumference  of  its  wide-spread  domain;  blessed  with  in 
stitutions,  free,  nicely  balanced,  beautifully  and  wondrously 
harmonized,  where  the  freedom  of  each  is  as  large  as  the 
security  of  the  whole  will  permit,  and  the  power  of  the  whole 
is  so  tempered  and  guarded  that  it  cannot  well  become  the 
oppression  of  the  few. — such  is  the  land  of  your  birth. 

Those  who  intelligently  read  the  past  and  then  contem 
plate  the  present,  must  feel  more  than  ever  convinced  that 
our  growth  is  full  as  marvellous  as  our  birth.  The  gegis  of 
the  constitution  now  covers  an  immense  area.  The  very 
sentinels,  who  cry  out  the  watchword  of  freedom  on  the 


392  LIFE   OF    WILLIAM  PINKNET. 

shores  of  the  Atlantic,  may  hear  the  echo  that  sends  it  back 
from  the  mild  Pacific  wave.  These  separate  and  indepen 
dent  sovereignties  have  multiplied ;  and  each  in  turn  has  taken 
its  place  beneath  the  floating  stars  without  so  much  as  a  jar 
in  the  glorious  constellation.  The  weak  and  the  strong  have 
been  gathered  into  the  same  clustering  group  without  so 
much  as  the  loss  of  a  single  beam,  save  where  that  beam  was 
voluntarily  surrendered  to  be  absorbed  into  the  splendors  of 
the  whole. 

And  yet  our  growth  has  been  singularly  guarded  against 
those  dangers  that  follow  the  widening  of  the  bands  of  em 
pire,  by  the  discoveries  of  science  which  have  brought  the 
most  distant  States  of  the  Union  into  close  proximity.  The 
pulsations  of  the  great  national  heart  may  be  heard  and  felt 
at  almost  every  beat  to  the  farthest  verge  of  the  body 
politic. 

We  are  a  nation  among  men,  a  power  on  the  earth.  Our 
influence  for  good  or  evil  can  be  circumscribed  by  no  limits. 
Liberty  in  union  is  the  true  genius  of  our  institutions,  and 
who  shall  fetter  or  restrain  them  ?  Our  power  is  in  the  jus 
tice  of  our  political  principles.  It  is  a  moral  power,  the 
greatest  and  most  masterful  of  all  powers.  Adherence  to 
what  is  constitutional  law  at  home,  and  a  due  observance  of 
what  is  clear  international  law  abroad,  are  the  very  elements 
of  our  greatness.  Our  power  is  not  a  thing  of  force.  Mut 
tering  cannon  and  frowning  battlements  do  not  aptly  repre 
sent  it.  These  appendages  of  power  we  possess,  it  is  true, 
and  the  thunders  of  Lake  Erie  and  the  bloody  plains  of  New 
Orleans  proclaim  to  all  the  surrounding  nations,  that  while 
we  love  peace  and  cultivate  it,  we  know  how  to  meet  force 
by  force  and  uphold  the  dignity  of  the  flag.  But  still  our 
power  is  pre-eminently  and  characteristically  the  power  of 
moral  suasion,  high  example  and  noble  unselfish  principle. 
We  have  had  a  brilliant  past.  We  have  a  glorious  present. 
We  shall  have  a  future.  But  what  a  future  ?  Shall  it  be 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  393 

a  future  of  joy  and  hope  to  ages  yet  unborn,  or  blacker  than 
midnight  when  it  settles  all  gloomily  on  the  fretted  bosom 
of  the  sea  ? 

The  ship  of  State  has  passed  through  sea  and  fire.  More 
than  once  has  she  been  driven  furiously  among  the  breakers, 
until  her  very  beams  seemed  to  bend  and  crack  in  the  shock, 
and  the  pilot  hung  doubtingly  at  the  helm. 

"  Ponto  nox  incubat  atra 
Intonuere  poll  et  crebris  micat  ignibus  aether." 

More  than  once  has  she  been  conducted  in  safety  through 
the  howlings  of  the  tempest  to  mild  waters  and  a  friendly 
harbor,  where  the  storm  spent  its  fury  in  impotency.  Bright 
skies  are  once  more  above  her — a  clear  pathway  before  her — 
calmly,  quietly,  and  beneath  the  beauteous  banner  of  peace, 
she  circumnavigates  the  world.  The  true  glory  of  a  country 
does  not  consist  in  a  fruitful  soil,  overflowing  treasury,  well 
equipped  and  well  disciplined  armies,  fortified  cities,  frown 
ing  batteries,  or  a  splendid  naval  force,  ships  manned  by 
brave  tars  and  governed  by  gallant  officers.  It  does  not 
consist  in  wide  extent  of  territory  or  a  crowded  population. 
These  things  are  valuable  in  themselves,  images  of  power 
and  where  rightly  used  and  honestly  obtained  images  of 
greatness.  But  they  do  not  constitute  true  national  glory. 
The  day  was  when  we  had  them  not — a  day  of  darkness, 
peril,  fierce  and  desperate  conflict.  And  yet  the  measure  of 
our  glory  was  never  fuller.  Our  name  was  for  praise  on  the 
lips  of  all. 

The  true  glory  of  a  nation  consists  in  moral  elevation,  high- 
toned  principle,  love  of  justice,  adherence  to  right,  schools 
and  colleges,  the  purity  of  her  statesmen,  the  intelligence 
and  patriotism  of  her  yeomanry,  and  above  all  incomparably, 
the  vital  godliness  of  each. 

It  is  for  the  young  men  of  the  Union,  thus  circumstanced, 
I  write.  I  write  to  them  because  they  are  young  men, 
young  in  hopes,  young  in  energy,  young  in  the  fervor  and 


394  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

freshness  of  an  enterprising  enthusiastic  public  spirit.  Youth 
is  generally  represented  as  a  sort  of  holiday  of  sunshine,  a 
pleasure-taking,  gay,  joyous,  buoyant  season ;  when  the 
prisoner  just  escaped  from  the  painful  restraints  of  his  alma 
mater  may  give  himself  up  to  those  waking  dreams,  which 
Prior  seems  disposed  in  a  very  mockery  of  refinement  to  dig 
nify  with  the  name  of  hopes.  I  would  not  take  one  ray  of 
real  sunshine  from  its  path.  I  would  not  dim  one  rush 
candle  that  flickers  by  its  way.  I  would  not  put  into  its 
sparkling  chalice  one  drop  of  bitterness,  to  mar  the  buoyancy 
and  elasticity  of  this  sweet  spring-time  of  existence, 
Youth  when  virtuously  spent,  is  an  oasis  in  this  bleak,  drear 
wilderness.  It  is  the  dew-drop  on  the  trembling  leaf,  the 
petal  of  the  flower  not  yet  blown,  the  acorn  of  the  oak  not 
yet  developed.  It  is  pre-eminently  the  season  of  hope,  the 
hour  of  visions  bright  and  golden  fancies,  when  the  mind 
may  weave  the  garland  of  its  future  fame  and  regale  itself 
amid  scented  bowers  and  golden  fruit.  But  youth  is  some 
thing  more,  something  vastly  higher,  nobler,  more  august. 
It  is  the  period  for  the  moulding  of  the  immortal  mind  and 
heart ;  and  gives  the  coloring  and  character  to  the  days  to 
come. 

It  is  for  the  young  men  of  the  Union  I  write.  It  is  for 
them  I  have  endeavored  to  draw  this  character  and  disclose 
the  life  of  one  of  our  distinguished  sons — satisfied  that  every 
exemplar  of  noble  energy  and  aspiring  character,  set  before 
them,  must  tend  to  stimulate  their  efforts  and  awaken  emu 
lation  in  their  bosoms. 

In  his  loyalty  to  the  Union — in  his  deep  and  patient  ex 
amination  of  its  stupendous  principles — in  his  awful  rever 
ence  for  the  constitution — in  his  broad  and  expansive  patri 
otism  that  scorned  all  sectional  boundaries,  and  aspired  to 
be  coextensive  with  the  limits  of  the  land  of  his  fondest  love 
— in  his  high  toned,  and  energetic  endeavor  to  assist  in  the 
establishment  of  the  true  principle  of  its  interpretation — in 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  395 

all  those  respects  we  fancy  we  may  behold  in  Mr.  Pinkney 
an  example  worthy  of  their  imitation  in  this  day  of  ultraisms 
on  either  side  of  the  line  that  separates  between  North  and 
South.  Like  him,  see  to  it  that  nothing  is  wanting  on  your 
part  to  uphold  the  constitution  of  this  Union  and  cause  it  to 
be  reverenced  and  obeyed.  Look  upon  it  as  the  strong  bond 
of  society — cherish  it  in  your  inmost  soul.  Let  your  fealty 
to  it  be  above  suspicion  and  reproach.  In  all  your  exposi 
tions  of  it,  learn  with  him,  while  you  do  all  in  your  power  to 
enlighten  its  duly  commissioned  expounders,  to  bow  with 
deference  to  their  decisions,  satisfied  that  the  constitution, 
constitutionally  interpreted,  is  the  law  of  safety,  honor,  pros 
perity,  and  peace  to  all.  Should  you  enter  the  halls  of  legis 
lation  or  rise  to  address  courts  of  justice,  be  ever  ready  to 
resist  by  argument  and  eloquence  the  slightest  encroachment 
of  State  sovereignty  on  the  national  jurisdiction,  and  vindi 
cate  the  States  from  national  usurpation.  Like  him  never 
approach  the  discussion  of  any  constitutional  question  with 
out  an  overawing  sense  of  the  responsibility  of  the  deed,  and 
feel  as  though  your  country  is  standing  before  you  to  be 
elevated  or  depressed,  as  the  constitution  triumphs  or  is  im 
paired. 

In  your  youthful  preparations  for  the  onerous  duties  that 
must  devolve  upon  you  as  the  future  guardians  of  your 
country's  honor  and  interests,  should  difficulties  rise  up  to 
impede  your  progress  or  dampen  your  energies — should 
poverty  bow  down  your  souls  in  the  dust,  and  patronage  be 
wanting  to  give  you  confidence  and  inspire  you  with  hope 
— should  the  sad  defects  of  early  education  conspire  to  abate 
your  ardor  in  the  exciting  race  of  honorable  distinction,  I 
would  point  you  to  the  youthful  Pinkney,  who  was  compelled 
to  grapple  with  fiercer  difficulties,  and  alone,  without  money 
or  patronage,  the  smile  of  friends,  or  the  favors  of  the  rich, 
push  forward  his  onward  and  upward  career ;  and  bid  you 
take  courage  and  never  yield  to  despondency  and  gloom.  If 


396  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

endowed  with  genius  (the  real  power  to  scale  the  loftiest  em 
inence  of  professional  renown),  remember  that  genius  alone 
will  not  suffice  to  crown  you  with  complete  success.  Like 
Pinkney,  you  must  study  to  be  great.  Close,  diligent,  search 
ing  mental  discipline  must  be  the  very  aliment  of  your 
life.  Your  motto,  like  his,  must  be  "  plus  ultra."  Knowl 
edge,  coextensive  with  the  widest  range  of  the  profession  ot 
the  law  and  the  science  of  government,  must  be  not  only 
sought  by  you  but  obtained,  and  that,  too,  by  labor  contin 
ued  without  intermission.  You  must  realize  what  is  so  beau 
tifully  recorded  of  Publius  Scipio,  "  ilium  et  in  otio  de  ne- 
gotiis  cogitare  et  in  solitudine  secum  loqui  soletum  ;  ut  ne- 
que  cessaret  unquam  et  interdum  colloquio  non  egeret. 
Haeque  dues  res  quse  langorem  afferunt  cseteris  ilium  accue- 
bant  otium  et  solitude."  Never  forget  the  lessons  which 
those  echoes  teach  so  conclusively,  and  always  bear  in  mind, 
that  no  matter  how  prodigal  Providence  may  have  been  in 
her  gifts  to  you,  all  must  at  last  depend  upon  yourselves. 
Work  you  must,  and  that,  too,  in  the  close  as  in  the  begin 
ning  of  your  professional  life  ;  or  you  may  never  hope  to  scale 
the  summit  and  reflect  lasting  renown  and  distinction  on  the 
land  of  your  birth.  In  this  strenuous  desire  and  exertion  to 
do  your  best,  to  add  something  daily  to  the  stores  of  your 
mental  resources,  you  must,  like  him,  give  your  days  and 
nights  to  study  ;  so  that  when  you  arise  to  address  juries,  or 
courts,  or  legislators,  you  may  reasonably  expect  to  instruct 
and  delight  them,  having  mastered  your  subject  and  threaded 
all  its  intricacies. 

The  benefit  and  importance  of  such  an  example  cannot  be 
better  stated  than  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Wirt.  "No  man 
dared  to  grapple  with  him  without  the  most  perfect  prepa 
ration  and  the  full  possession  of  all  his  strength.  He  kept 
the  bar  on  the  alert  and  every  horse  with  his  traces  tight.  It 
will  be  useful  to  remember  him,  and  in  every  case  imagine 
him  the  adversary  with  whom  we  have  to  cope."  Years  have 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  397 

passed  since  these  words  were  penned,  but  the  power  of  such 
an  example  is  imperishable.  So  far  from  losing,  it  acquires 
strength  by  age,  and  comes  to  us  clothed  with  all  the  dignity 
and  veneration  of  a  relic  of  times  gone  by.  This  ceaseless  men 
tal  struggle  (that  never  so  much  as  winked  its  eye,  but  always 
marched  steadily  to  the  point  and  made  preparation  a  de 
light)  is  less  the  habit  of  our  day  than  it  was  ;  and,  there 
fore,  there  is  peculiar  propriety  in  calling  up  this  marked  and 
striking  feature  in  Pinkney's  character  for  renewed  imitation 
and  study. 

Above  all,  like  him,  keep  your  professional  integrity  as 
an  advocate  unimpeached  and  unimpeachable.  Never  rest 
your  defence  upon  weak  points — spurn  all  captious  cavillings 
— and  when  you  grapple  with  your  adversary,  meet  him  like 
a  man  and  storm  the  very  bulwarks  of  his  argument. 

Be  it  your  ambition,  like  him,  to  be  truly  great,  because 
truly  learned  and  upright.  Aim  to  be  what  you  would  have 
the  world  suppose  you  to  be.  Let  your  confidence  be  the  re 
sult  of  diligent  preparation,  and  then,  although  like  him, 
you  may  never  rise  without  embarrassment,  you  will  find 
yourselves  more  and  more  assured.  Your  pathway  of  argu 
ment  and  eloquence  will  be  clear  before  you. 

I  hand  you  this  simple  record  of  a  man  who  has  been 
said,  somewhat  reproachfully,  to  live  in  the  mere  echoes  of 
his  fame.  You  have  heard  those  echoes  coming  up  from  the 
courts  before  which  he  plead — the  public  service  he  so  much 
adorned  by  his  wise,  moderate  and  patriotic  principles — the 
Congress  of  the  Union,  where  he  always  stood  forth  the 
champion  of  the  people's  rights,  and  where  his  eloquence 
and  his  logic  were  the  breathings  of  a  conservative  states 
manship — and  the  private  walks  of  life,  which  he  illustrated 
by  a  moderation,  temperance,  and  kindliness  of  heart,  that 
might  be  said,  without  a  figure,  to  have  been  that  chorus  of 
the  virtues  which  Cicero  so  much  lauds.  You  can  now 
judge  whether  these  echoes  be  not  convincing  proofs  of  the 


398  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

more  than  gothic  splendors  of  the  original.  Pinkney's  fame 
may  live  for  the  most  part  in  the  echoes  of  the  past.  But 
still  they  are  the  echoes  of  the  great,  the  learned,  and  the 
wise,  who  have  left  behind  them  the  most  undoubting  testi 
mony  to  the  wonders  of  his  mind — echoes  not  of  the  envious 
or  fawning  parasite,  but  the  honest  and  upright,  men  of  men 
tal  enlargement  and  well  cultivated  taste,  giants  of  the  age 
in  which  they  lived.  The  speeches  that  survive  him  are  all 
fragmentary.  They  lost  so  much  in  the  effort  to  report  them, 
that  you  can  scarce  discern  the  resemblance.  Such  was  the 
discipline  of  his  mind  and  his  skill  in  extemporaneous  discus 
sion,  that  when  fully  prepared  (and  he  never  spoke  when  he 
was  not),  he  poured  forth  his  arguments  in  a  stream  of  the 
purest  English,  fresh  and  gushing  from  the  "  well  undefiled." 

Is  it  hoping  too  much ;  is  it  asking  too  much  of  the  young 
men  of  the  United  States,  who  are  now  treading  in  his  foot 
steps  and  the  footsteps  of  the  other  giants  of  his  day,  that, 
thrilled  by  such  glowing  reminiscences  of  genius,  patriotism 
and  labor,  they  would  redeem  the  promise  of  the  future  and 
hand  on  the  record  to  succeeding  ages,  bright  with  new  names, 
that  shall  live  after  them  ? 

In  a  country  like  ours,  where  each  citizen  has  his  full 
share  in  the  affairs  of  the  body  politic, — and  no  one  can  tell 
what  positions  of  power  and  influence  he  may  have  to  fill, — 
and  where  in  the  most  retired  sphere  he  may  choose  to  occupy 
"  procul  a  republica,"  he  can  hope  to  serve  the  country  most 
effectually — it  is  his  bounden  duty  to  prepare  himself  by  a 
careful  training  of  both  mind  and  heart  for  any  and  every 
possible  public  emergency.  He  belongs  to  the  republic,  for 
the  republic  is  but  an  aggregate  of  personal  individuality. 
He  cannot  lead  a  solitary,  selfish  existence  without  the  guilt 
of  moral  treason  against  her  pride  and  power. 

Diligence  and  application  are  tremendous  levers  and  the 
fulcrum  on  which  they  rest  is  the  might  and  majesty  of 
your  individual  will.  Possunt,  quia  posse  videntur,  was  a 


LIFE   OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  399 

favorite  maxim  in  the  olden  time.  Who  can  calculate  what 
moderate  abilities  will  accomplish,  when  stirred  into  action 
and  kept  vigorously  at  work  by  plodding  industry  and  steady 
perseverance  ?  Application  works  wonders.  Bacon  has  said 
that  "  crafty  men  contemn  studies,  simple  men  admire  them, 
wise  men  use  them."  "  Head  to  weigh  and  consider,"  continues 
that  master  mind.  "  Some  books  are  to  be  tasted,  others  to 
be  swallowed,  and  some  few  are  to  be  chewed  and  digested." 
With  some  such  maxims  in  your  view,  and  the  firm  deter 
mination  to  make  the  most  of  your  powers,  you  must  live 
benefacere  Keipublicse  and  reflect  upon  it  fadeless  lustre  and 
renown. 

Shun  superficiality  in  every  thing  you  undertake.  The 
habit  will  soon  become  a  palsy  upon  your  mental  faculties. 
Take  a  step  at  a  time,  and  no  step  without  a  full  comprehen 
sion  of  its  use  and  aim.  "  Festina  lente."  Be  satisfied  to 
move  a  step  at  a  time,  and  rest  assured  that  your  progress 
will  be  rendered  thereby  the  more  rapid  and  certain. 

The  republic  expects  each  one  to  do  his  duty,  and  we 
would  therefore  urge  upon  you  the  importance  and  necessity 
of  diligent  preparation  to  do  it  well  and  faithfully. 

Your  fathers,  "  Pat  res  conscript!,"  were  wise  men  all,  of 
the  most  approved  patriotism,  cahn  philosophic  wisdom, 
patient  study,  and  intense  application.  Washington,  Adams, 
Hamilton,  Marshall  led  them  on  in  their  bright  career,  a 
career  carved  out  for  them  on  the  blood- washed  fields  of  the 
Kevolution.  They  left  their  impress  on  the  history  of  the 
world — and  that  history  must  be  torn  to  tatters  before  their 
memory  can  begin  to  fade,  and  then  so  long  as  the  shreds 
remain,  the  disjecta  membra  will  hand  down  their  names  to 
confound  tyrants  on  their  thrones  arid  rebuke  the  myrmidons 
of  despotism.  Wise  men  will  be  needed,  wise  councils,  wise 
measures,  for  the  future  guardians  of  our  ship  of  State. 
Patriotism  and  intelligence,  in  combination  with  moral  virtue 


400  LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY. 

and  a  pure  Christian  faith — these  are  the  gothicand  corinthian 
pillars  of  the  noble  edifice. 

Your  country  looks  to  you.  Shall  she  look  in  vain  ?  To 
uphold  her  ancient  renown  and  fulfil  her  exalted  destiny,  she 
craves  your  warmest  sympathies  and  most  substantial  aid. 
Will  you  refuse  her  the  just  demand  ?  None  but  true 
hearts,  enlightened  minds,  heroic  wills  can  serve  her  as  she 
needs. 

You  are  young  and  vigorous.  There  is  nothing  that  you 
may  not  do  which  she  has  either  the  right  to  expect  or  the 
authority  to  exact.  She  neither  exacts  nor  expects  of  you 
impossibilities.  Girded  in  by  an  example  ever  powerful  to 
thrill  and  stimulate  you — surrounded  by  the  monuments  of 
a  prudence,  moderation,  and  patriotism,  that  have  pervaded 
the  land  in  all  thje  beauty  and  impressiveness  of  an  august 
reality,  she  would  have  you  only  re-enact  the  magnificence 
and  glory  of  the  past.  Worthy  sons  of  worthy  sires  is  all 
she  desires  you  to  be.  She  would  have  you  imitate  virtues 
that  have  already  found  an  impersonation  on  the  earth,  and 
emulate  a  patriotism  that  knew  of  no  measure  short  of  the 
highest  national  exaltation. 

Aim  to  be  real  characters.  There  is  power  in  reality. 
This  was  Mr.  Pinkney's  crowning  characteristic. 

The  age  in  which  we  live  is  an  age  of  activity,  rather 
than  patient,  laborious,  plodding  industry  and  attention  to 
study.  Even  among  professional  men  there  is  far  less  of  the 
"labor  limas"  than  existed  in  the  generation  just  passed. 
There  is  not  the  same  ambition  to  excel,  the  same  emulation 
in  the  path  of  honorable  distinction.  The  dust  actually  ac 
cumulates  on  the  pages  of  splendid  libraries  that  were 
thoroughly  conned  by  the  fathers  of  the  present  generation, 
who  possessed  no  more  time  for  literary  and  learned  pursuits 
than  those  who  have  inherited  their  names  and  fortunes,  but 
not  their  thirst  for  knowledge  or  distinction. 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  401 

The  great  Koman  Satirist  thus  wrote  in  the  decline  of 
his  country's  literary  and  political  glory. 

"Indocti  primum,  quamqnam  plena  ornnia  gypso 
Chrysippi  invenias.    Nam  perfectissimus  horum  est, 
Si  quis  Aristotelem  similem  vel  Potticon  emit 
Et  jubet  archetypes  pluteum  servare  Cleanthes." 

He  rebuked  those  who  aped  learning  without  undergoing 
the  fatigues  and  toil  of  study,  and  flattered  themselves,  that 
by  filling  their  studios  with  the  busts  of  deceased  logicians 
and  statues  of  renowned  philosophers,  they  would  merit  and 
win  for  themselves  honorable  and  lasting  distinction.  May 
we  not,  without  charge  of  presumption,  warn  you  against 
this  folly,  and  by  the  hard-earned  laurels  of  your  ancestors, 
and  ours,  inculcate  the  all-important  truth,  that  nothing 
truly  great  can  be  accomplished  without  intense  application. 
It  will  not  do  to  have  the  images  of  Lord  Bacon,  Shakspeare, 
Hooker,  Taylor,  Coke,  Mansfield,  Steward,  Sir  Matthew  Hale, 
Johnson,  looking  down  upon  us  with  calm  beauty  and  inspiring 
earnestness.  It  will  not  suffice  to  gaze  upon  the  statues  of 
Aristotle,  Cicero,  Quintillian,  Thucydides,  Herodotus,  as 
though  the  cold  marble  would  warm  us  into  life  and  transfuse 
into  our  bosoms  their  own  bright  thoughts  and  deeds.  It 
will  not  do  to  stand  in  the  shadow  of  the  fathers  of  the  re 
public  and  feast  our  eyes  upon  their  calm  philosophic  features. 
We  must  study  their  immortal  works  to  emulate  their  great 
ness.  However  eagerly  we  may  pursue  the  discoveries  made 
in  science  and  government  since  their  day,  we  must  remem 
ber  that  these  are  fixed  stars  which  can  never  lose  their  bril 
liancy  or  their  use.  Their  works  are  solid  gold,  hammered 
out,  which  must  constitute  the  warp  and  woof  of  every 
character  which  like  theirs  would  aspire  to  like  immortality. 

The  mention  of  Cleanthes  recalls  to  mind  an  historic  fact 
of  pregnant  interest  to  the  young.     It  proves  what  the  heart 
of  oak,  and  iron  will  can  accomplish.     He  was  a  Stoic  phil 
osopher,  surnamed  Hercules,  because  of  his  excessive  labors 
26 


402  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM   PINKNEY, 

to  amass  knowledge.  He  was  so  poor  that  he  was  accustomed 
to  get  his  living  by  drawing  water  for  the  gardens  at  night, 
that  he  might  apply  himself  to  the  study  of  philosophy  by 
day.  It  was  even  said  of  him  that  he  wrote  the  doctrines  of 
his  master  upon  ox  bones  and  broken  tiles  for  want  of  money 
to  purchase  befitting  materials.  And  we  know  that  some 
other  immortal  works  have  been  since  written  on  scraps  of 
paper  picked  up  accidentally  in  the  streets.  The  home  of 
genius  is  not  in  the  palaces  of  luxury  or  the  gardens  of  de 
light,  but  the  workshops  of  patient  and  secluded  labor. 
Great  names  are  enrolled,  not  upon  the  fleeting,  unsubstantial 
cloud,  which  receives  its  roseate  hue  from  the  hand  of  an  ex 
cited  fancy  or  a  rich  and  discursive  imagination,  but  on  the 
marble  dug  from  the  quarry  and  polished  by  industry  and 
perseverance. 

We  know  that  we  are  oftentimes  charged  with  egotistic 
folly  as  a  nation,  because  we  regard  ourselves  as  the  world's 
trustees.  But  we  plead  not  guilty  to  the  impeachment.  We 
hold  that  this  western  continent  is  destined  for  the  enact 
ment  of  a  grand  drama  in  the  world's  history.  We  see  the 
hand  of  Providence  in  her  birth  and  growth.  We  have  no 
prophet's  vision  to  read  the  future  ;  but  we  can  sit  down  in 
the  light  of  the  past  and  read  enough  to  thrill  and  fill  us 
with  awe  and  pleasure.  Our  fathers  copied  after  no  model. 
It  was  all  their  own  brilliant  creation  ;  God's  blessing  on 
their  honest  patriotism,  love  of  justice,  moderation  and  fear 
of  wrong.  Liberty  and  equality  constitutionally  guarded, 
were  the  magic  words  they  emblazoned  upon  their  high 
floating  standard.  They  kindled  a  flame  that  still  cheers  the 
world,  amid  the  darkness  of  misrule  and  the  clouds  of  politi 
cal  superstition  and  antiquated  error, 

In  handing  over  this  precious  legacy  to  you,  are  you  sur 
prised  that  our  anxiety  and  our  fears  are  awakened,  as  well 
as  our  patriotic  exultation  and  pride.  Your  fathers  will  soon 
lie  down  to  die,  and  the  floating  stars  will  wave  before  their 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  403 

dying  eye  in  all  the  beauty  of  unity  and  harmony  of  their 
blended  rays.  Her  martial  airs  will  float  triumphantly  on 
every  breeze,  and  mingle,  as  they  fall  upon  their  ear,  in  death, 
with  those  other  sounds  that  will  soothe  and  compose  them 
to  their  final  rest.  They  will  soon  cease  to  be  actors  in  this 
busy  scene.  Their  last  prayer  offered  up  for  the  country's 
weal,  their  last  deed  of  loyalty  performed,  they  will  pass  from 
off  this  stage  of  action  and  leave  you  the  responsibility  and 
privilege  of  being  alone  in  your  glory.  Their  solicitude  is  for 
you  and  yours,  not  for  themselves.  Their  task  is  well-nigh 
concluded ;  their  responsibility  well-nigh  accomplished. 
The  past  is  theirs.  The  present  and  the  future  belong  to 
you,  "  The  past  is  secure."  It  gives  neither  anxiety  nor 
concern.  The  stars  and  stripes  cover  it  with  glory.  But 
the  present  and  the  future  are  laden  with  hopes  and  fears. 
Will  you  make  it  the  heritage  of  good  or  the  prognosticate 
of  evil? 

You  have  the  hopes  of  the  world  in  your  care  and  keep 
ing.  You  are  each  one  of  you  sentinels  on  the  watch-tower 
of  liberty.  The  countersign  from  your  lips  is  echoed  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  wave,  and  the  world  honors  and 
respects  it.  It  finds  a  welcome  response  in  thousands,  who 
dare  not  whisper  even  to  their  trembling  hearts  the  solace 
and  the  comfort  it  affords.  Be  it  your  highest  earthly  ambi 
tion  to  live  as  men  should  live  who  are  put  in  charge  of  such 
a  dread  trust.  Let  your  policy  be  just  and  upright.  Culti 
vate  peace,  and  let  the  repose  of  nations  be  undisturbed  by 
you.  Suffer  the  country  to  grow.  Intermeddle  not  with 
her  inner  life,  for  it  constitutes  at  once  her  truest  power  and 
highest  renown.  God,  in  His  wise  overruling  Providence, 
will  develope  her  as  rapidly  as  her  safety  and  honor  will  per 
mit.  Let  the  American  name,  under  your  guardianship,  be,  as 
it  ever  has  been,  the  watchword  of  honesty  and  truth.  Her 
flag,  let  it  wave  the  symbol  of  equal-handed  justice  and  en 
larged  civil  and  religious  liberty,  the  pledge  of  protection  to 


404  LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNET. 

the  rights  of  all  and  the  stern,  unbending,  unyielding  exactor 
of  our  own. 

Promote  purity  of  morals  and  elevation  of  principle. 
Frown  upon  vice.  Revive,  as  far  as  you  can,  the  self-sacri 
ficing  habits  that  characterized  the  infancy  of  the  republic. 
Do  all  in  your  power  to  bring  back  again  the  period  of  '76  ; 
and  let  the  heroic  deeds  and  virtues  of  that  golden  age  be 
your  constant  study  and  imitation. 

And  above  all,  learn  to  estimate,  as  you  ought,  the  power 
of  individual  influence,  the  force  and  might  of  individual  ex 
ample.  "  Rivulets  are  made  up  of  drops — mountains  of 
grains  of  sand."  The  onward  rushing  stream  of  political 
power,  which  on  this  continent,  and  in  these  United  States, 
occasionally  swells  with  more  than  the  majesty  and  impet 
uosity  of  the  Mississippi,  when  a  flood  is  upon  her,  is  only 
the  swollen  aggregate  of  private  views  and  principles.  Each 
gives  an  impetus  to  the  whole.  There  is  no  danger  so  sub 
tle,  crafty,  and  insidious  in  its  first  approaches,  and  after 
workings  for  evil,  as  the  secret  conviction  that  it  matters 
not  what  this  or  that  private  citizen  does  or  thinks — the 
persuasion  that  the  man  is  absorbed  and  swallowred  up  in  the 
multitude.  It  is  the  most  bitter  drop  of  political  poison  ever 
distilled  into  the  cup  of  a  freeman — it  is  the  first  weaving 
of  the  chain  of  the  despot  on  his  stalwart  arm.  He  has  read 
history  to  but  little  practical  profit,  who  does  not  know 
that  every  thought  and  deed  of  each  and  every  freeman  is 
incorporated  by  the  mysterious  law  which  pervades  all  hu 
man  society  into  the  grand  aggregate  ;  and  that  the  citadel 
is  never  so  safe  as  when  each  watchman,  feeling  her  to  be  in 
danger,  is  wide  awake  and  at  his  post. 

That  my  young  countrymen  may  live  to  realize  their 
most  sanguine  hopes,  and  reflect  new  lustre  on  the  land  of 
their  birth;  that  they  may  be  happy  and  useful  in  their  re 
tirement,  if  they  should  prefer  the  quiet  shade — and  re 
spected  and  revered  for  their  public  and  private  virtues, 


LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  405 

should  they  be  called  to  serve  their  country  in  the  legislative 
halls,  at  the  council  board,  or  in  the  courts  of  justice  ;  that 
they  may  cultivate  their  minds  and  hearts,  and  refresh 
themselves  at  the  well-springs  of  eloquence  and  of  learning; 
and,  above  all,  that  they  may  be  strong  in  wisdom,  and 
show  themselves  as  men,  keeping  the  statutes  of  the  Lord, 
and  walking  in  His  ways,  and  thus  diffuse  all  around  them 
the  fragrance  of  a  holy  and  virtuous  life,  is  my  most  earnest 
prayer.  They  must  expect  difficulties,  look  for  trials,  and 
encounter  many  rude  shocks  as  they  traverse  the  sea  of  life. 
The  very  castles  they  build  in  what  may  be  called  the  mock 
grandeur  of  their  youth,  "  when  life  is  like  a  summer 
dream,"  will  be  soon  demolished,  and  the  solid  superstruc 
ture  of  a  sure  and  enduring  renown  will  cost  them  many 
days  of  anxious  toil  in  its  erection.  But  still,  if  true  to 
themselves,  the  country  and  the  world,  they  will  not  fail  to 
be  honored  and  revered  as  public  benefactors.  "  There  is  an 
intimate  connection  between  private  virtue  and  public 
greatness.  The  most  honorable  and  liberal,  the  most  benev 
olent  and  religious  man  is  in  the  first  instance,  and  will 
eventually  appear  to  have  been,  the  best  friend  to  his  coun 
try  and  the  noblest  benefactor  to  mankind." 

I  have  a  deep  and  unfeigned  veneration  for  the  memory 
of  lofty  talent  and  high-toned  manly  principle,  consecrated 
through  long  years  of  public  service,  by  single-minded  earnest 
ness  and  self-sacrificing  labor;  and  if  I  mistake  not,  there  is 
that  in  the  bosom  of  my  fellow-men  which  beats  responsive 
to  my  own.  He  who  erects  a  monument  to  departed  worth, 
and  by  his  art  and  ski]l  causes  the  marble  or  the  brass  to 
speak  trumpet-tongued  to  the  present  of  the  past,  is  a  bene 
factor  of  his  race.  Every  monument  thus  erected  to  lend 
beauty  to  the  streets  of  the  crowded  city,  is  a  pillar  of  na 
tional  security,  which  strengthens  while  it  adorns  the  great 
temple  of  freedom.  It  speaks  in  a  language  free  from  pas 
sion,  and  with  the  awful  inipressiveness  of  the  tomb,  which 


406  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    PINKNEY. 

consecrates  all  that  is  virtuous  and  ennobling  among  men. 
A  monument  of  marble  or  of  brass,  it  was  not  possible  for 
me  to  raise.  It  is  not  often  the  privilege  of  descent  to  en 
grave  on  the  cold  marble  the  image  of  a  loved  ancestry. 
True  it  is,  the  world  is  occasionally  cheered  by  the  sight  of 
the  filial  deed  ;  and  even  now  the  American  can  look  with 
pride  upon  the  enterprising  artist,  who  calmly  and  patiently 
continues  at  his  work,  and  will  not  abandon  it  until  his 
countrymen  shall  hail  the  consummation  of  the  deed.  Jus 
tice  Story  will  live,  not  only  in  his  own  imperishable  works, 
but  in  the  life-revealing  pen  and  chisel  of  his  son. 

Mine  is  an  humble  task.  To  the  memory  of  William  Pink- 
ney  after  a  long  lapse  of  years,  during  which  his  form  has 
neither  moved  among  men,  nor  his  tongue  electrified  them, 
and  when  the  prejudices  of  rivalry  may  be  supposed  to  have 
given  place  to  nobler  sentiments,  I  have  erected  this  modest 
and  unpretending  monument.  Inscribed  upon  it  is  his  char 
acter  as  I  have  studied  and  understand  it.  In  the  fourfold 
aspect  of  orator,  lawyer,  statesman,  and  man,  you  may  read 
it  there.  I  have  asserted  nothing  without  proof.  I  have 
weighed  well  the  facts  stated.  I  have  uniformly  permitted 
other  lips  to  speak  forth  his  praise.  In  my  own  estimate  of 
his  mental  and  moral  character,  I  have  studied  to  be  impartial, 
and  although  it  would  be  disgusting  presumption  to  affirm  that 
I  have  not  unconsciously  yielded  somewhat  to  the  power  of 
those  feelings  of  partiality  which  almost  always  give  a  coloring 
to  our  views,  I  can  truly  say,  that  I  believe  that  the  work  con 
tains  intrinsic  internal  evidence  of  its  truthfulness  and  fide 
lity.  Will  any  cynic  chide  me  for  the  work  ?  He  may  re 
buke  the  rashness  of  the  undertaking,  and  I  bow  to  the  sad, 
though  just  impeachment.  But  the  desire  to  rescue  from 
oblivion  the  memory  of  departed  worth  is  immortal,  and 
none  may  dare  rebuke  it.  That  desire,  united  to  the  deep 
interest  I  take  in  the  young  men  of  the  land,  is  my  only 


*  •,  i 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM   PINKNEY.  407 

apology  for  what  I  know  and  feel,  as  deeply  as  the  most  un 
sparing  critic  of  my  work,  to  be  its  rashness. 

Quid  erit  tutius  quam  earn  exercere  artem  qua  semper 
armatus,  presidium  amicis,  opem  alienis,  salutem  periclitanti- 
bus,  invidis  vero  et  inimicis  metum  et  terrorern,  ultro  feras, 
ipse  securus  et  velut  quadam  perpetua  potential  ac  potestate 
munitus  ? 


THE   END. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  priod  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


AUG101978 


JUL  i  !^  78 


LD21A-60m-8,'70 
(N8837slO )  476 — A-32 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


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